


Exhilaration

by Shatterpath



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angie is a motormouth, Cussing, F/F, F/M, Flirting, Threesome - F/F/M, Tumblr Prompt, and adorable, and what's with Peggy's arm?, sexy gym rats
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-30
Updated: 2016-06-20
Packaged: 2018-04-24 05:47:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4907716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shatterpath/pseuds/Shatterpath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Angie's home from college and makes some new friends.</p><p>From the prompt: (NinjaAnon) Modern Stegginelli meeting because Angie's baby brother's birthday is at the indoor climbing gym that Peggy and Steve run. Angie can't stop flirting with the two gorgeous people helping her brothers and other party guests climb and setting things up. Steggy flirting back just as easily. Numbers get exchanged.<br/>(cblgblog): She’s more bummed than the kids are when the party ends. Her oldest brother smirks at her as they leave. “Guessin you wanna climb somethin too, and it ain’t the kiddie gym.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Comicbooklovergreen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Comicbooklovergreen/gifts).



> This tale is classic 'Shatterpath rambling' at its finest. I didn't plan anything ahead of time, just wrote as I went along. Very little of it was edited and I only read it through once to find the most glaring errors. I couldn't bear that I haven't put up a single tale in all of September due to real life and the Marvel Big Bang I'm participating in, so I pounded this out in two days and a marathon of Leverage. Hey, whatever works, right?

"Gee! Gee! Gee!"

Bracing herself for the impact, Angie grabbed the little blaze of energy and swung him around wildly. Shrieking in delight, the boy sprawled into the quick flight with the same whole-body enthusiasm that he clung to her with when then fell into a hug.

"I've missed you, Mikey!"

"Miss you too!"

Neither cared that half the busy place was staring at them.

"You're not Superman today?"

"Nuh uh, I'm In'ana Jones! Gotta climb and 'splore! C'mon!"

Thrashing away from her grip, the boy took a crushing grip on tired hands and dragged Angie through the facility she hadn't even gotten a chance to look at yet.

"Wow, when they said remodel, they weren't kidding."

"Thank you," replied a complete stranger's voice, making Angie jump in surprise. Low, wryly amused and thick with a smooth British accent, the voice belonged to a striking brunette with expressive dark eyes and the most delectable mouth Angie had ever seen. She didn't make a cartoonish smitten noise, but it was a near thing. "Indiana Jones here found you far more interesting than his lesson."

Giggling in embarrassment, Mikey peered around Angie's leg. "Sorry, Miss Peggy, I jus' haven't seen Gee in so long."

Before Angie could say a word, the taller woman's mouth curled into a deeper smile and her body language eased. "I know who you are. You're the sister."

Reluctantly tearing her gaze away from the looker, Angie smirked down at her little brother. "What do you know. Someone finally got it right!" To take any possible sting from her words, Angie stepped back and swept into an exaggerated bow worthy of a musketeer and their very big hats. "Angie Martinelli of the mad Martinelli clan. You have met our young squire currently impersonating the great explorer, Doctor Jones."

As cheeky as always, a giggling Mikey stepped away to execute a picture-perfect curtsy and simper at her. Straightening, Angie grabbed a small hand and twirled him before ducking down to monster at his neck and get squealed at. The slow applause from their dryly amused audience made both look sheepish this time.

"I see it runs in the family," Miss Peggy drawled and the siblings laughed.

"Hey, Mickster, can you find Dad and let him know I made it here okay?"

"'Kay!" The boy bellowed but only got a few strides away before bolting back and nearly mowing her down, strong arms looked fiercely around her waist. "You're home now? You staying?"

Petting the dark curls, Angie smiled adoringly at him. "Until the end of summer break. Just like I promised."

His smile could have lit up Manhattan.

"Sorry about interrupting the lesson."Angie immediately apologized once Mikey had raced away and earned a smile from the mysterious Peggy. "We don't see one another nearly often enough."

"It's quite all right. In truth, I don't normally deal with the youngsters, as it's not necessarily a strength."

"Grows on ya, doesn't he?" Angie teased and something in Peggy's smile turned almost shy.

"Yes, well, I can see it runs in the family."

Chuckling at the almost flirtatious comment, Angie rubbed aching hands over her weary face and took a deep breath.

"If I might say it, you look exhausted."

Stretching her arms over her head and yawning, Angie contorted every muscle and relished the head rush of increased blood flow, stumbling as she relaxed. A hand shot out and she grinned thanks, noting how Peggy flinched in pain across her torso. "Thanks. I had to rearrange a chem final for this morning so I could get home for his small highness. It's worth it, but I'm dog tired, yeah."

"This morning? And you don't see Mikey very often. You must be going to school in New York."

"Yes ma'am. Used to be a six hour drive would barely phase me. Now I feel like I just walked from Seattle."

"Well, welcome home. Incoming."

Sure enough a gaggle of small children descended on Angie and she was dragged back like a deer taken down by Chihuahuas to join the festivities. As familial affection, pizza and a particularly delicious cup of coffee was included, she was willing enough prey. Even if she did want to stay with the sexy, enigmatic stranger. 

The Walker Gym was an institution in town, a ragtag collection of sports facilities, exercise equipment and facilities in a monstrous metal warehouse surrounded by fields and woods to play in. Every kid for several generations pretty much grew up there, getting grass-stained and bruised up, soaked in the pool's water and learning to play in the best sense of the word. When Angie's brothers had told her-- in horrified fascination-- that someone had bought the old place and shut it down for months to remodel, she'd been as curious and wary as everyone else in town.

However, the place looked great. New equipment was mixed in with the old, the whole place was scrubbed and freshly painted and-- miracle of miracles-- had a good, solid floor underfoot. No more sharp linoleum edges and splintery wood or half-assed fixits that every kid in town had been convinced had led to some dark, hellish place. Good times.

Torn between his friends and his big sister, Mickey was ready to have a meltdown from overstimulation when Miss Peggy swooped in with an authoritarian voice that riveted the rugrats… and a certain Angie Martinelli.

"So, are we ready to get back to lessons? Everyone fortified with pizza and soda? Excellent! As we have a special guest, I'll be volunteering young Michael's sister, Angie, to give us a hand. Come along, kids!"

Willing enough little ducklings, the children tromped after the woman, Mikey's imperious yanking at Angie barely giving her a chance to grab the duffel bag their father had thankfully remembered to grab for her. Angie didn't think she could have handled borrowed equipment as overtired and wired as she was. 

"Whoa…" she marveled at the upgrades to the facility that Luke had been going on about on Twitter. Seems in this case, the that excitement wasn't just Martinelli dramatics. "This is hella impressive."

Childish giggling at her language was interrupted by a booming man's voice. "So I hear there's a birthday boy!"

When they all turned to look, Angie found herself nearly face-planted into as spectacular a chest as the sexy Englishwoman's, admittedly one of the opposite gender. The Superman symbol stamped onto faded blue cotton made it all the more impressive.

"You're a little tall to be the birthday boy," the stranger laughed as he stepped a half pace away and Angie looked up into a handsome face and the prettiest sky-blue eyes she'd ever seen. The kids cracking up made her sigh and reach up still-sore hands to rub wearily at her eyes.

"Oh… I see why you didn't want to be Superman today, Mick." Angie sighed and the man chuckled warmly as the kids giggled. "Hard to compete with that."

"She's not a boy," one of Mikey's pals sneered and the man's grin went the faintest bit speculative at her for a moment-- making Angie wonder if she'd rubbed her eyes too damn hard-- before once more turning sunny and sweet for the kids.

"No indeed she isn't! Now, I'm Steve and I will be your belay weight today, at least for a bit, because Peggy has a hurt arm, as some of you might have noticed."

Clearly exasperated and fond of the man, Peggy sighed dramatically and flipped back the edges of the enormous shirt she was wearing to reveal a brace strapped snugly around her torso. There must be slits cut in the material to let through the velcro cuffs at wrist and elbow. Angie hadn't even noticed them on first meeting.

While the infernally attractive employees got the kids corralled and began suiting up a couple of them, Angie crouched to rifle her bag. Everything looked the same way as she'd left it so long ago, still wrapped in clean towels. Only interested in the harness, she ignored the rest and checked over the contraption of straps and foam padding. She had too little of her own padding to wear a stripped-down harness, and-- once she slipped the thing on-- she realized she'd actually grown slimmer at school.

"I gotta eat more often," she grumbled and was startled by a smoky laugh close by.

"Would you like a hand? I've one useful one."

Quirking a grin at Peggy, Angie jiggled the slightly loose rig around her hips. "Yeah, that'd be great. Looks like school's taken more outta me than I thought. Gonna blow away at this rate."

That one good hand held the gear belt in place while Angie tightened it up, then helped thread the excess strap through the loops to hold it out of the way.

"I think the leg belts have loosened up, can you manage that one handed?"

"I believe so."

A stranger's hands on her ass shouldn't feel so nice. Angie clearly needed to get laid.

"This is solid equipment."

"Yeah, me and some friends used to do this all the time, so I saved up for a good harness. Luke, he's fifteen now and running around somewhere, still does. I gave him all my cams and wedges and carabineers before I left. Figured I wouldn't have time."

"Did you?"

There was some warm spark of understanding in the dark eyes and Angie felt a strange lump of emotion in her chest. She'd nearly forgotten how nice a stranger could actually be. There were many things to love about New York, but the loss of community wasn't one of them.

"I might have, if I'd had a good partner."

Angie hoped her embarrassment over her reflexive flirting didn't show on her complexion.

The kids were split on who wanted to brave the wall. Angie could have managed the warmly painted green surface in about thirty seconds flat with no harness, but to a gaggle of six and seven year olds, it was pretty intimidating.

"Tell you what, Mickster," Angie soothed her brother as he fiddled with the climbing harness provided by the facility. "I haven't done this in a really long time, right? So a wall like that will be about my speed. Do you want to go together?"

Torn about needing her support in front of his friends, desperation won out and he nodded. He had wanted to join his older siblings on their adventures for a _very_ long time.

Easily adapting, Steve ran Angie's line through his belay device, securely fastened to his own harness, and kept a firm grip on Mikey's in one big hand. By the size of those arms and that chest, Angie had little doubt he could have braced the entire birthday like a marionette on strings. So the siblings started up the easy baby slope and Mikey bravely attacked the steeper wall with Angie patiently dawdling along nearby. The cheers as they stood at the top and Mikey throttled her in a choking hug was worth every minute of the exhausting day. When being lowered to the ground like a spider freaked him out a bit, Angie willingly held him close and relied on the powerful stranger to lower them to the ground. Luke was there, cheering his head off and forgetting to be a surly fifteen year old as he caught Mikey leaping from above so the brothers could hug and dance around in glee.

Superman Steve high-fived Mikey and was inundated by eager kids wanting to try out the wall since their pal the birthday boy managed the feat!

Angie was quite happy to find a bench at the edge of the chaos and doze off with expertise of being three years deep into a college degree far from home. A nap from which she was rudely awakened from by a kick to the foot.

"Get up, Mangy," Luke sneered and Angie cracked open an eye.

"Y'know, you may be bigger than me now, Shithead, but I can still trash your ass."

The teen feigned fear like a bad B-grade damsel in distress. "Ooo, I'm so scared. C'mon, the place is half empty now and you gotta see some of the walls that Captain Hottie and Superman put up. Fuckin' sweet."

They'd never dare use such language in front of Mickey or their father, but it was a point of pride between them in private. Groaning with the effort, Angie peeled herself off the bench and nearly stumbled over her half-numb legs. The padding on the waist and leg straps of her harness were awesome while on a rope, but crap for sitting around in.

It turned out that Luke hadn't exaggerated and Angie marveled over what used to be a dilapidated open gym, now miraculously transformed into a bright, active space. There were handholds over a ton of surfaces at every angle including a terrifying-looking bridge some thirty feet up and near horizontal. Mixed in on the floor where climbers had no use for the space, were trampolines built in at floor level and a massive pit of foam blocks that Angie made a mental note to throw herself into at some point. Steve was watching over the walls with a bossy stance that would make a Marine weep, thick arms crossed, head tilted up to keep watch over his patrons.

"Gladys, stop fooling around or Bob's going to climb right up your tail. Jamal! Watch your belay. That's better."

"Hey, Steve!"

In a fluid move, a couple people stepped in to take over Superman's position and he turned to acknowledge the shout. "Hey Luke." Then, that engaging grim warmed his handsome face again. "And we didn't get properly introduced earlier, ma'am. Steve Rogers, co-owner of the establishment."

His handshake was exactly like his early impressions, big, warm and friendly with an undercurrent of dangerous steel. 

"Um, Angie Martinelli, though that second half is obvious. I'm surprised you pried this place out of Old Man Walker's greedy fingers."

That rolling chuckle was like a big cat's purr. "He just needed to meet someone who cared more about the place then the money."

"Well, it looks great. You'll have to introduce me to your decorator."

"An even split with my co-star," he sassed back, clearly amused by the banter. "Speaking of which."

His attention shifted away and Luke leaned in to murmur just barely loud enough to be heard, "get a room, drooly."

Angie's whack to his chest was not a nice one.

"So, sister dearest challenged me to a race," Luke spoke up as he rubbed his sore chest. With practiced aplomb, he ignored her sharply murderous look, knowing perfectly well that their mutual competitive streaks wouldn't let her back down. Nor could she do more than glare as Miss Peggy stepped over to Steve's side with Mikey and his mother and the Martinelli patriarch on her heels. Steve settled a very friendly arm over Peggy's shoulders and Angie sighed silently to herself. Oh well, at least she could join Luke in drooling from a distance.

"Well, as I assume she taught you," Steve took some of the wind out of Luke's sails with that comment, "you can use the orange intermediate wall over there. It's open. I think your buddy, Karl, is still around, so he can belay you. I'll take care of Angie here."

With parentals and younger brothers close by, Luke managed to nearly conceal his filthy smirk. Angie nearly hit him again anyway.

"I've had better challenges," she hedged, looking up at the darkly orange wall and its scattered handholds.

"Maybe you have, but I don't know your skill level personally and you're limping slightly. So you get the orange wall."

Yep, friendly, but steely.

"All right, Supes, you win. I'll go get my bag for my gloves, because I sure don't have any of the right calluses any longer."

By the time the siblings were ready to go, a small crowd had gathered to egg them on. Mikey was given the honor of giving the yell 'go' and the older Martinelli children surged up the wall. It was a rush Angie had set aside, the exhilaration and danger, the burn that quickly set in to every muscle as she reached up for the next handhold, felt around with dexterous toes to push against the pull of gravity. Bigger and stronger than she was now, Luke pulled ahead, but Angie was betting on skill and patience winning the day. Fifteen feet from the top, her gamble paid off as Luke lunged at a handhold and lost his grip on the wall. He shouted with irritation as the springy rope and his buddy's weight on the other end stopped the fall, but there was no catching up now.

Like the grownup she was supposed to be now, Angie only taunted Luke a little bit from the top, sticking her tongue out at him, but otherwise behaving. Enjoying having a rock-solid belay partner on the other end of the rope, she gleefully rappelled down the wall to stumble into the scattered applause… and Peggy. The taller woman flinched the immobilized right shoulder back, which made Angie flail in the effort to miss, tripping over Mikey and pretty much face-planting right into the generous cleavage she'd been trying not to admire over the day.

Proof of why she was both single and often not taken very seriously.

Thankfully, Peggy might be the very essence of womanly softness, but the iron grip and the ripple of hidden muscle proved there was more to her than met the eye.

"I've had more eloquent offers," Peggy said dryly as Angie clung to her and found she was having trouble getting her legs to work. Apparently her own whippet-lean body was so jealous it had forgotten how to function. Or she could just be really tired.

A big hand on the back of her harness saved Angie further indignities by effortlessly setting her onto unwilling feet. The half-incoherent stream of apologies died off as Peggy placed her good hand on Angie's cheek, tilting her head to examine her bloodshot eyes.

"I'm cutting you off."

"But bartender," Angie whined back playfully, enjoying the touch and the ripple of laughter from her family and these new… could she call them friends? She did just nearly feel up Captain Hottie and was being mostly held up by Superman. Oh well, she'd met friends in weirder ways.

"The lady's right, Hotshot. Your legs are shaking so hard I can feel it. Would you be more comfortable with a rubdown from a woman employee?"

"No, whoever's good," Angie muttered, rubbing at her face, embarrassed and disbelieving at the situation. Dad chuckled and gave her a hug, saying they needed to wrap up the party anyway, glad you're home, good job, Bamabina. The usual. 

"There's a quiet room behind the soaker tubs. She'll be there," Steve explained and hoisted Angie into a better position to be hand-walked like an invalid to yet another section of the old Center she didn't recognize anymore. 

"Thanks for taking care of me," Angie rambled on, just too tired to care what she sounded like any more. "Been to long since I've been up a face. I'm shakin' in places I'd rather not talk about to my dad. Ugh."

Peggy and Steve only chuckled.

As advertised, the quiet room was painted in soothing grays and the lights were low and indistinct. There were lots of upholstered surfaces, one of which Steve easily hoisted Angie's small weight onto.

"This is nice, you guys are nice. You're together right? 'Cause you got that 'zing, pow, yowza' energy, y'know? Shame, that. Not for you two, just the res' of us."

A hiss stopped the rambling as Steve stripped away the harness and ran both hands up one shaking leg. "We're going to have to ease you back into climbing, Angie. You clearly have the skills and smarts for it."

"Not the body," she giggled and tried to ignore his businesslike touch. Peggy had sat by her head, using her one hand to rub at burning shoulders and upper arms.

"School's taken it out of you, hmm?"

Lulled into a half-dream state by sheer exhaustion and the delight of kind hands taking away the receding shakes and arriving pain, Angie was unable to stay focused and merely soaked up the attention. It was all too easy to imagine those big, gentle hands on her thighs, Peggy's one strong hand running down her upper pecs….

Snorting awake, she would have bolted if every large muscle in her body weren't laughing at the futile effort. 

"You good there, Angie?"

All three hands paused at Steve's question and Angie wanted to sink through the floor in embarrassment. 

Really, what was she, twelve? Making up Penthouse scenarios in her head. God, she could see it now; the headline would read, 'sexy couple at gym seduce horny co-ed.' Way to go, Captain Cliché.

"Well, thank you for the compliment, Captain," Peggy said in that same wry, warmly amused tone that Angie would forever associate with her. Then the words sank in and said co-ed sucked in a hard-- nearly choking-- breath.

"I didn't say all that out loud, did I?"

The look shared between the sexy couple was unreadable, their deliberately bland expressions not covering up their amusement. Angie's arms obeyed this time and she wrapped them around her head to groan pitifully. The stifled noise Steve made was probably repressed laughter and when he spoke matter-of-factly, there was a distinct note of it thrumming there.

"So, are you looking for a summer job?"

That gave Angie pause and she moved her arm to peer disbelievingly at him. "Wait. Here I am, writing bad porn in my head, and you're offering me a _job_?"

"Well, I hope it's not _bad_ porn."

"Steve!" Peggy's astonishment would have carried more weight if she weren't nearly doubled over laughing. The rich, warm burst of delight made Steve get all gooey-eyed and it was the sweetest thing Angie had ever seen. The way he reached out to smooth his hand over her cheek and ear, the look on his face, it was enough to make anyone swoon.

"I haven't heard you laugh in far too long."

"Yes, well…"

The left-armed shrug spoke volumes, but even the enigmatic shadows couldn't chase away that red-lipped smile. It deepened when Steve stood to lean over her and press an adoring kiss to the bridge of her nose. Angie got the feeling there would have been more had she not been here. Oh, to be an audience for that…

Weary to her bones, Angie managed to roll to her side and sit up without falling into a heap on the floor, even if a couple hands pushing at her helped. "You serious? A job?"

"Sure," Steve confirmed easily and started ticking points off on his fingers. "You're funny and charismatic and a local. You're clearly skilled at climbing even if we're going to have to whip you into shape. And you were ecstatic to be doing it, even if you exhausted yourself in the process." He gentled into the warm, friendly guy she was beginning to get to know. "And you made Peggy laugh. So far as I'm concerned, you're family now."

That time, Angie couldn't stop the blush and scuffed at the floor like a child. "Oh stop. You just want someone to wrangle the maggots."

It gave her a thrill to make them laugh, and the strength to get to rubbery legs.

"Yes, well that too," Peggy agreed easily, the wide smile taking the weight of something traumatizing and mysterious from her in the intimate moment.

"Okay, you have a deal. Let me sleep this off and hang with Mikey and my dad for a couple days and I'm all yours."

"Thursday then?"

"Is it only Monday? Fuck, that's right, I moved the chem test from tomorrow."

"Bed, young lady," Peggy said with mock severity-- the accent helped with that-- but her smile was pure warmth.

"Yes'm. Just gotta find Dad and Gina so that one of them can drive my car home…"

Somehow she was herded back to the care of her family and the whole lot of them waved goodbye to the nice couple, who waved back. There was no hiding the wistful like and lust mixed up in brain, belly and… well, lower and Angie flinched at Luke elbowing her in the ribs.

"Guessin' you wanna climb somethin' else, and it ain't the kiddie gym."

Neither of them would admit to what caused the blows, no matter how Dad lectured them.

Safe at home in her old bed, sprawled out to the sound of croaking frogs and chirping insects and the asthmatic wheeze of her ancient fan, Angie fell asleep easily.

And dreamed of superheroes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bit more of the tale from Steve POV. 
> 
> So, apparently, I just needed a swift kick in the ass to get moving on this project! Thank you to all of you that did so!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Part 1 took place on May 5th. Memorial Day is the 25th.)  
> Angie June 22nd (Cancer with a Gemini cusp)  
> Angie 'Mangy' (21) and Luke (15), full sibs. Mikey is a half-brother, is turning (7) Dad- ?, Gina is Mikey's mother. 'Brahm' is short for Abraham.  
> Bobbi and Jemma, Angie's roommates and fellow students. (B_morse_ful & ) Skye (Daisychain. She hates the nick, but Angie won't drop it.)  
> Gym employees: Natasha, Thor, Sam (others may be added over time)

With habit years established, Steve woke and rolled over to snuggle into Peggy's warmth and drink up her sleepy murmur of reaction. Those nightmarish days of terror, worry and loneliness while she recovered made for horrible sleep and just about losing his mind. As had become his habit, he pressed his lips to the curve of her neck and shoulder, in subtle acknowledgment of the ragged holes the bullets had punched into her flesh, now reduced to misleadingly simple little puckers of scar tissue. 

"Love you, babe," he murmured and drank up the curl of smile on her beautiful mouth. The endearment was returned in a mostly incoherent mumble even as she started to doze off and Steve grinned as he levered himself over her to evacuate the bed. 

Brahm had jumped up to take up the warm spot he left behind the instant Steve woke and now scooted his great, furry bulk into Peggy's back. He looked so much healthier than he had when his humans had been such a mess, healthy weight firmly reestablished and coat looking healthy once more.

Quickly dressing in lightweight workout clothes, Steve slipped out of the bedroom and hit the kitchen to drink a big glass of water to hydrate before leaving the apartment, Brahm making an appearance to follow him down the stairs. The gym was dark and quiet, a sense of anticipation thick in the stillness. Really, finding the place had been a godsend, keeping them both busy and keeping the morbidity of Peggy's long recovery as light as it could be. Yeah, rural-ish Ohio was still taking some getting used to, but it was well worth it.

The security gate chattered quietly as he rolled it away and locked it open before flipping the deadbolt on the industrial glass door. The quiet coolness of morning was ignored in his surprise to find he wasn't alone. She-- for the unexpected guest was definitely all woman-- was bent at the waist, left leg partially extended like a dancer and toes gracefully pointed, torso laid flat to her thigh. It was an amazing display of physicality and the primitive parts of his brain sat up to take lusty notice. He was married, not dead. With a startled look, she was straightening up with effortless grace and he realized it was the interesting young woman he'd spontaneously offered a job to. After the unusual and memorable meeting Monday, he'd pretty well put her out of his mind.

Though chuckling over said encounter had certainly led to a wild night…

Hoping those particular memories weren't stamped all over his damn face, Steve ignored Brahm imperiously nosing him aside. "Hey, Hotshot. Up at the asscrack and showin' no signs of being half-crippled with fatigue. Excellent."

The wariness hovering around her didn't suit Angie's infectious personality and Steve was glad to see her relax a little, a small smile playing around her mouth. She was a pretty little thing, slim and athletic with expressive and intelligent eyes and an air of mischief to her. Exactly the sort of girl he would have once competed over with Bucky. The twinge of pain was so familiar that he accepted it like the breath in his lungs. 

"Yeah, some actual rest and a couple days away from school have started making all the difference in the world. That and Mikey's mom was kind enough to wrangle him enough to let me get said sleep when possible. Can I say hello?"

It took Steve a distracted moment to realize that her attention was on the dog. Figured.

"What? Oh, absolutely. This is Brahm."

"Like the composer?"

"No," Steve laughed and rubbed the dog's head to reassure him about the stranger. "It's short for Abraham."

"Sweet. Hi gorgeous."

In just a few adoring strokes over the heavy head, Brahm was under the new lady's spell, pressing against Angie's small frame and whining happily.

"Slut," Steve affectionately teased the smitten dog before moving his attention to Angie. "While you two make friends, let me see your phone to get in some numbers you might need."

"Sure."

While he tapped at the device, he kept talking. "We didn't pound out any details for the job, but Peggy will take care of that. She should be downstairs soon, but you can call if you get twitchy."

"Wait, you guys live here?"

Laughing, he handed her phone back and set off at a steady run with Brahm falling in beside him after clinging longingly to his new love interest for a moment. "Peggy'll explain! Lock up behind you!"

Yeah, perhaps it was a bit rude to bail out so suddenly, but Steve was oddly flustered. With effort, he remembered to modulate his pace for both himself and Brahm. The steady cadence of his feet, heart and breath calmed him and he returned waves from various people out watering their lawns and gardens or headed out for a day's work. He kept expecting some variety of the usual ambush, but it turned out that he had to get all the way back to the locker room for it.

"So. The new girl."

Theirs was a strange relationship based on a literal lifetime of familiarity and mutual adoration. Many had marveled at them, his physique and the good looks he'd taken so long to grow into, and the curvy, petite beauty of the woman who was like another limb to him. But she was more sibling and best friend and extension of his soul and a different sort of love. For she was the only one left that remembered the skinny, asthmatic boy forever on the sidelines and he the only one who remembered the angry, spirited only child of Russian immigrants forever afraid to go home to the terrors that lay in wait for her there. Bucky had been the third leg on their weird trio and would get into endless scrapes with Natasha while Steve was mostly the distraction, playing up his waifish appearance like a broken little bird. Even once the families of both boys had been taken and they found themselves in an orphanage, somehow the little ninja had continued to break in and free them to run the night until caught and sent back to their prisons.

When puberty had swamped over them, it had somehow thrown a switch in Steve and his health problems had all but evaporated in less than a year. Then he'd been as much a hellion as his pack, dancing at the edges of street gangs and the mafia and cops.

Until they made friends with Peggy and things began to change. Steve drifted away from the shadows, Natasha helplessly pulled between her boys, each of them too stubbornly set on their divergent paths.

And one night, Bucky simply hadn't come home, having paid the ultimate price for the lifestyle he wouldn't leave behind.

Sympathy shone back from sea green eyes and Steve gave her a light hipcheck and put on his best innocent face. "Yes, what about the new girl?"

"I'd ask if your dick hired her if I hadn't seen the way Peggy looks at her."

Only Natasha could say something like that and get merely a long suffering sigh and a smirk. 

"Oh, don't look so put out, Rogers. Who knows your kinky streak better than I do? Besides Peggy, of course."

In retaliation, Steve snapped a towel at her, but she was quick as a cat and danced out of his reach. That she was right was entirely beside the point. It was more than just illegal shenanigans she had gotten into with Steve and Bucky, after all. Steve changed into a clean shirt and the old friends bantered as they let Brahm lead them to Peggy. She flashed a smile while petting the big dog's head when he leaned adoringly into her side. 

"Good morning, you two."

Steve stole a quick kiss and Natasha mock-pouted that she was left out until she dissolved into chuckling beneath Peggy's dryly exasperated look. He still had no idea exactly how Peggy and Natasha had settled things between them all those years ago, but he sure as hell remembered the bruises. Bucky had never been able to stop laughing long enough to share, no matter how many times Steve pestered him.

"I see Sam has a new best friend."

Sure enough, the guy they'd hired for his sunny personality was talking animatedly with Angie near the foam pit, both of them cracking up suddenly.

"Actually, they know one another," Peggy said easily. "You missed the squeal of delight when she saw him. Tackled him right into the pit. It's been far too cute to interrupt."

They stayed put until the lone climber on the wall was safely down and then Sam herded Angie over to the bosses. "Morning, guys."

After introductions, during which Angie looked oddly at Natasha as though trying to figure her out, Steve made conversation. "So what do you think of the changes?"

Swallowing a grin, Angie abruptly took on the expression and body language of a classic 'snobby rich bitch'. It was a startling shift. "For 'gym chic' it lends a certain ambiance, with just enough of the shabby left to intrigue the eye and keep some of the familiar. It could aaaaall the rage next season."

She bowed dramatically to their applause and Peggy chuckled, "you really are a scream."

"It's a gift. Or a curse, depending on who you ask. Friends think I'm a riot, teachers, not so much. Hard to believe I've had drama coaches tell me I'm not dramatic enough, huh?"

Sam and Natasha politely made their escape then, as business was slowly beginning to pick up with the warming day. The owners and the new girl chattered about business and got paperwork sorted out, cumulating with Angie waving off Peggy's hesitation about only offering minimum wage. "Don't sweat it. I managed to score a couple killer scholarships and I rent a room from a co-student and good friend that lets me live cheap."

"How did you score cheap housing in New York City?" Steve asked in disbelief. 

"She's mysteriously loaded and as eccentric as one would expect and I cook. Not only do the roomies take advantage, but so does pretty much everyone I know. So I let them pay me in favors, textbooks, supplies and even tutoring a couple times. So I eat for nearly free and my personal finances are actually holding up, since I don't nibble at them much."

"Sounds like college is your style."

"Eh, it's a living for now. This year will be a far bigger pain in the ass. I almost didn't come home, but burnout was a very real possibility. At this point, I'll take on an extra quarter and push back graduation if I have to for these couple months of decompression."

Angie sort of sprawled in her seat, body open and relaxed. It was mildly suggestive-- and really, Steve couldn't figure out why she was so distracting-- but more than that, her ease reminded him of how Peggy had once been in her own skin… before the bullets. And yet… just being around her seemed to be easing something in Peggy, unknotting that constant stress of pain and nerves that plagued her now. For that ease alone, Steve would walk through fire, even for this virtual stranger. 

"Do you like being home?"

It was a more personal question than perhaps he should be asking said virtual stranger, but as a former New Yorker, he was curious. Gesturing elaborately, Angie searched for the right words. "Well, that changes depending on my mood. I was desperate, des-per-ate, to get out of this little town and become something bigger and brighter than I could be here. So I went for broke and shot for the biggest stage I could and actually made it. And I love New York I do, but…"

"It's not home," Peggy said quietly, the empathy in her tone deep and resonant.

"Yeah, exactly, it's not home. In some ways, even here isn't home anymore, though it feels closer. I dunno, maybe I just need the right change."

He felt the weight of Peggy's gaze on him even before he turned his head to be ensnared by her yet again. He'd been intrigued by her at first sight, even as she'd dismissed him as one more obnoxious punk in the herd. It had been that derision that made him slow down, take inventory of a life being lived to fast, to close to the razor's edge of disaster. In improving himself, he felt better, looked better, had a sense of pride in himself that was better than any adrenaline rush. That sense of self caught Peggy's eye, gave Natasha something solid to hang on to while she found herself, setting both friends on the path to something so much better.

He just wished that Bucky had come with them, not stayed behind to be chewed up like roadkill by the life they left behind.

"Some things are worth that sort of change," Peggy murmured in that soft, intimate tone for him alone. The gentle tickle of fingers on his chin was more than enough to coax him into a sweet kiss full of all the promise and adoration he'd nearly lost that day not so long ago.

Angie's expression was pure wonder and envy.

Clearing her throat to lighten the mood, Peggy patted his cheek and became businesslike once more. "Now, you kids run along and I'll tend to Brahm here, all right?"

"Sure thing, babe. C'mon, Martinelli."

There was a fresh batch of baked goodies at the snackbar and Steve happily dug out his favorite. He was halfway through the chunky muffin before he searched out the manifest and snatched up a pen from the battered cup atop the food display case. 

"You can have what you want, just track it so we know where it's going. You get a freebie a day-- we don't want you dropping from low blood sugar after all-- then it's cost, which is listed on the manifest."

While he explained, he put said manifest on its clipboard after doing a quick count, and returned it to hanging from its nail. He noticed that Angie was looking past him, through the opening that looked over the half-finished industrial kitchen that lay mostly in shadow. They'd stopped work on it when money grew tighter, leaving it for another day… or month… or year.

"Got you thinkin', huh?"

Snapping her attention back to him, Angie scoffed and waved him off. "Fantasizing is more like it. The delicious havoc I could wreak with a kitchen like that…" Cackling like a cartoon villain, she grabbed a fruit n' nuts bar and led the way back to the main floor. As Steve had caught himself wondering just how sturdy the stainless steel in there actually was, he did his best to shake the dirty thoughts off and stick to business. An in-depth tour of the facility accomplished that, letting him gush over the dream come true. Who didn't want their own business? To set your own hours and succeed or fail on your own merits? 

For a chatterbox, Angie behaved herself and mostly listened, keeping her questions to the topic at hand. Even when Peggy and Brahm joined them later, she stayed mostly focused, merely patting the dog's head and making an effort to keep her eye from wandering. It was a poor effort, and Steve sure as hell didn't blame her, as Peggy was a hell of a looker, always had been. That the smoky blue eyes tinged with sea green wandered his way as well gave him so many ideas, the smirk no doubt what had Peggy eyeing him dryly. If she didn't look half ravenous, he might feel a little bad about the spark of interest.

"And feel free to come back and use the facilities if we don't work you hard enough."

Not a natural liar by personality, Steve had learned the trick after years of tutoring from Natasha. Keep the body language relaxed, don't fidget, stick as close to the truth as possible and keep the face neutral. If desperate, smile winningly and hope they buy it. Though, he could tell the dirty smirk tugging at his mouth was showing because Peggy gave him a laser look that make him cough to cover a laugh. He had never denied enjoying riling up the woman he'd willingly given his heart to all those years ago. Not his fault she was even sexier when she was fierce.

"Oh, I'm sure I can find a way to wear myself out."

He tried, he really did, but the slow flush climbing up Angie's neck and the way she rubbed her forehead broke him down into rumbling guffaws. For that, Peggy finally jabbed him in the ribs with a hard finger, though she was smiling in amusement and reassurance to their new pal. Flustered, Angie was clearly searching for something to say.

"Hey, is the creepy basement still there?" 

Laughing all the harder, Steve nearly hugged himself while he carried on like a hyena. Utterly exasperated, Peggy tugged Angie away, sighing dramatically. "Ignore the idiot, even if his hilarity has a point as I don't think there's a single person who grew up in this town who hasn't asked that question. I regret that we ran out all the monsters when we cleaned up the filthy place." 

To crack loose the amusement he could see was trying to escape Angie, Steve feigned a perfect delicate, girly-girl shudder and earned himself a delighted giggle. Peggy just shook her head, wryly amused with both of them. "Cut from the same cloth, the both of you."

"Hey, scaring the shit out of each other with stories about the creepy corners that used to be a staple of the this place was a rite of passage!" Angie protested with a flawless innocent expression Steve envied and Peggy chuckled at. "We had a wild story for every stuck door and crack in the floor and patch on the wall."

"So I've heard. Oh Steve, for pity sake, tell it before you burst!"

It took a moment for him to rein in his loud amusement enough to speak. "First week we were hear I found a creaky old door by the old furnace room and scared the living crap out of Natasha."

"And you limped for a week, jerk!" The redhead shouted from somewhere out of sight and Steve had to excuse himself to get a grip on his hysteria yet again.

\----

The first text message left Peggy so confused that she eyed her phone as though it was going to bite her. When Steve asked what had her so flustered, Peggy shook her head and said, "what does a nosey pepper do?"

Confused, Steve only shrugged.

"Gets jalapeno business."

They both paused a moment and then cracked up.

Throughout the day, several more came in, just as silly as the first, amusing the couple enormously.

_What do you call a fake noodle? An Impasta!_  
_What do you call an alligator in a vest? An Investigator!_  
_How do you make a tissue dance? Put a little boogey in it!_

"Now I know it's Mikey," Steve laughed and plunked himself down at the computer to find a good comeback. "I wonder if Angie even knows he's doing it. She will now! Here, type in, 'Why do sea-gulls fly over the sea? Because if they flew over the bay they would be bagels.'"

"Just awful, Steven," Peggy chortled as her thumb flew over the keyboard. Not two minutes later, the device trilled urgently and Peggy answered with her voice wreathed in amusement. "You've been unmasked, troublemaker."

The fifty-fifty gamble turned out to be a giggling Mikey, his voice carrying over the phone's speaker. "Bagels! That was great!"

"Oh my god, Mikey! We need to work on your spelling!" Angie's voice hollered at the edge of the mic's pickup, coming closer as she continued ranting. "Captain Britain and Captain Hottie are NOT the same person. Though the irony of those monikers belonging to the two Brits in my life has only now occurred to me. Give me that." There was a scuffle of sound and a squawk of protest from Mikey before Angie's voice carried more clearly over the connection. "I'm really sorry, guys, Mikey and my roomie, Jemma, have this weird thing of texting silly jokes back and forth. But only when I'm home and the sneak can steal my phone."

"Well, while there was some confusion, certainly, but he gave us a good laugh. If he doesn't abuse the privilege, he can send a few here and there."

"Oh, you're asking for it now!"

"If your friends are half as entertaining as you Martinelli's, it sounds like a hell of a party," Steve called out.

"Well, Jemma is the adorable asshole who told me, and I quote-- hang on a sec and let me pull up the text."

The couple listened with amusement as Angie hummed to herself for a moment, her phone beeping quietly.

"Here we go! 'At least I broke you of that stupid habit of quoting Harry Potter or your atrocious Shakespeare.'"

The racket of laughter warmed all three of them

\----

_Just remember that you asked for it. What dog keeps the best time? A watch dog! Give Brahm a hug for me_

_Right. This means war. What's worse than raining cats and dogs? Hailing taxis!_

_LOL! Good one! Here's one for ya. lol = Drowning Man. *lol* = Drowning Cheerleader._

_And here, I thought I'd figured that acronym out. :)_

_Mikey says he moustache you a question, but he'll shave it for later._

_Ouch. I can't best that one._

\----

To no one's surprise, the kids of the town flocked to Angie like she was the pied piper. She and Thor were the clear favorites of the youngest clientele and membership in the kiddie classes bumped up across the board. It worked out well because Angie could come in just for those classes and a few events here and there, not cutting into her casual part-time status and obligations to family, schoolwork and just screwing off. Steve was happy to give them pretty much free rein as they cost far less than they brought in.

Besides, the David and Goliath contrast of them was hilarious.

So Steve was mildly taken aback and completely amused to find Angie sprawled out in the shade of a tree, staring intently at her phone while Thor rumpused with the small class of seven through nine year olds. She startled the faintest bit at his unexpected presence, but airily waved it off.

"Hey, I jog back and forth to work every day I'm here. God of Thunder there can run off the maggot's energy while I take a little breather. And I needed to see if this was the right article I've been searching for this time. The nice thing about the TA having a hard-on for me is getting research, not to mention taking the final exam a day early." She rolled her eyes expressively at Steve's wide grin. "I don't take too much advantage of the idiot, I promise."

Shrugging, Steve gestured at the phone, one eyebrow raised curiously. Oddly, Angie got flustered over that.

"Oh, I can't imagine how interesting organic chemical analysis would be to someone not studying it."

That brought up the other eyebrow in impressed surprise.

"All this bullshit about not enough women in STEM has been pissing me off my whole life, so rather than just be pissed off, I put my money where my mouth is. Since there's little but farmland around here, I bugged a few locals as a kid and started learning about the nuts and bolts of crop plants and herbs and decided I'd study botany. It's endlessly fascinating, though I'm having a hell of a time figuring exactly what I want to focus on. Oh, I know, I need to get off my ass and decide, my advisor's about to bite my head off, but I don't feel connected to exactly what drew me to it in the first place. Don't get me wrong, NYU is awesome, but it's a little… disconnected from my roots, y'know? And Peggy's comment about not feeling like it was home really hit me and the theater minor I was pursuing doesn't feel as right as I thought it would. Who knew science would get in my blood so much, huh? So, yeah, I have a lot of thinking to do."

The blinding grin beamed up at him made Steve smile helplessly back.

"Thanks for the ear Steve, I appreciate it."

It wouldn't be until later that Steve realized that he had never spoken a word.

\----

_What does a clam do on his birthday? He shellabrates!_

_What are you, four?_

_LOL! Flatery will get you nowwhere, english_

_Your spelling is abhorrent_

_Shit, does spellchek even HAVE abhorrent? Cool!_

_Do your homework, troublemaker._

\----

The early-morning jog was a daily ritual rarely skipped as much for Brahm's sake as Steve's. The too-recent dry spell during Peggy's hospital stay and subsequent recovery was still a raw reminder and got his ass out of bed on days where he might have been persuaded into a 'lie in' with his beloved. Her words, not his.

Catching his breath at the door that led to the apartment they'd built into the corner of the sprawling facility, Steve tapped the keypad and entered the rough space at the foot of the stairs which was pretty much a bit of personal storage and a makeshift dog-tending area that he really needed to scrape some time up to finish. Brahm drank greedily while Steve soaked out some of the sweat in his hair in the old bathtub normally used for the dog. It was definitely getting warmer, even early in the day and he was worrying over the rising electrical costs as the AC units were working harder and harder.

Distracted, he wandered into the main gym, toweling his hair and startled at a now-familiar voice drifting to his ears.

"Come on, English, you got this. Don't puss out now."

When he entered the room with the climbing walls, it took real effort for Steve to swallow his heart down.

For Peggy was on the wall.

And not the little green kiddie slopes either, but one of the orange intermediate angles, strong legs braced on toeholds, left hand bracing her upper body, head turned up. Even as he watched, she bounced like an indecisive kangaroo before uncoiling to hop up, all three sound limbs grasping powerfully to the rubbery grips. That move just about made him cry out in protest, one hand raising up as though to grasp at her. She couldn't possibly be up there! She was going to get herself killed….

But the dispassionate part of him noted the safety equipment, her crippled arm strapped tight to her body, even her hand swaddled completely, to prevent an unconscious grab with a limb that had no notable strength any longer. 

"Nice!" Angie crowed, carefully altering the slack and tension on the line she was belaying for the larger woman. In a glance he was reassured by her sure hands on the colorful rope, the braced angle of her legs and the anchor line running from her harness to the heavy bracing and eyebolts specifically installed for just that purpose. 

She was right, Peggy moved up another couple painstaking feet, a combination of the awkward-looking hops and pressing her body to the wall so that she could reach with that one hand.

Steve would forever regret that his presence made her slip.

Oh, she was in no danger, the springy rope and Angie's sturdy hold ensured that, but the guilty and determined look on her face broke his heart. Had he been holding her back? Watching her quickly sort herself out and get both feet on the wall to rappel down with Angie's help told him that the answer was yes. Now, he could be a dick and get freaked out and crazy, or he could man up and be the guy she married who loved and trusted her completely.

Peggy startled to half-fall on him, body stiff but not fighting his arms.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, hugging her close, breathing in the smell of her, warmed with a healthy sweat of good hard work and not the terrifying tang of illness and healing. "I've been holding you back."

Sniffling, not quite sobbing, she clung to him with all of the reawakening power in her once-broken body.

Neither even noticed a smiling Angie quietly disengage from the ropes and slip away.

\----

_I bought a racehorse today and named him My Face. I don't care if he doesn't win, I just want to hear a load of posh twats shouting, "Come on My Face."_

_Captain Britain says you're welcome._


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peggy opens up and a social event ups the subtext level before a birthday party gets truly interesting!

_When Albert Einstein masturbates, is it a stroke of genius?_

\----

The memories assaulted at the oddest moments, taking her breath away every time.

The rattling hum of the Cessna 172's old engine was permanent sensation in her bones, an extension of her senses and skills. But in a mere sucked in breath, that all changed. With a whizz of insect-like sound and a tinny 'pok, pok, pok', agony exploded in her right shoulder as though speared, blood misting all over her controls and the windscreen. The plane rolled violently as shock and agony sent her pilot into convulsions.

Peggy never told anyone, not even Steve, about the mystery roar of wind that had grabbed the out-of-control vehicle, slamming that dipping right wing out of the deadly tailspin. How pure reflex had responded to the plane's wordless language, hands yanking the yoke and trimming her swaying dance in the skies with shaking feet on the rudder pedals. The animal sounds of shock and pain echoed around the small cabin as blood soaked her and the seat, made the whole space stink of it until she wanted to vomit.

If Peggy'd had a religious bone in her body, it would have sent her back to church.

Her memories of a cluster of buildings and a huge swath of grass reaching up to grab at the plane's wheels were hazy at best. The violent semi-crash landing barely registered, only a sensation of being violently jerked to the left before quiet descended, broken only by her whimpers. Rough voices turning to shock, being moved awakening the blazing agony in her shoulder again, sunlight burning against her eyelids, doped up and drowsy at the hospital, Steve's terrified face finally anchoring her back to reality.

"Hey."

Not Steve's voice and Peggy looked around wildly. Angie was standing slowly from where she'd been crouched on the floor, punching a cardboard box to get the tape to loosen. Noticing the way Peggy was swallowing convulsively, she reached for the water bottle and approached slowly.

"Here, have a little water."

Not quite back to herself, Peggy couldn't make herself loosen the death grip on her crippled arm, even as she stared with naked need at the clear, rippling water. So Angie took a chance and placed a tentative hand over her whitened knuckles.

"I got it. Take the bottle, Pegs."

She let Angie's warm hand anchor that arm and drank greedily, wanting more even as it ran dry. But it was enough to chase back the phantom sensations, leaving her shaken, but firmly back in the present.

"I hate being thirsty."

It was an inane thing to say and Peggy knew it, but Angie only nodded. "Friend of mine gets that way too. Worse when she's hungry. Hey, can these boxes wait for a bit? I dunno about you, but I could use a break."

That was how Peggy found herself eyeing a tray that bore no less than seven types of liquid refreshment, from plain water to a little carton of chocolate milk.

"Take what you want, I'll drink any of it," Angie said easily, her voice remaining calm and undemanding. So Peggy took the orange juice, expertly peeling open the paper top to drink deeply of the bracing sweetness.

"You've never asked."

"Nope."

Sipping at the milk carton, Angie didn't elaborate, merely looking out over the slow afternoon in the gym.

"I'm a pilot. Was a pilot. Small craft, not those lumbering monsters. On my free time, I would volunteer for the Civilian Air Patrol."

Now Angie was intrigued and twisted in her seat to give Peggy her full attention. "Oh yeah? Never heard of it."

"Not uncommon, that. It's a civilian arm of the Air Force actually. Helps with standard domestic patrols, search and rescue, shuttling VIPs, things like that. Luke must have heard Steve teasing me with my rank of captain and run with it. So, I wasn't even looking for marijuana fields that day, but apparently flew right over one while banking a bit recklessly. The bullets punched right through the fuselage and my seat. One was a through and through that shattered my airspeed dial, the other got stuck in my shoulder joint. The joint could be replaced, but the nerves are damaged beyond repair. Everything is still very fuzzy, but I can't shake that sensation of being so thirsty as I nearly bled out."

Shuddering, she reached for the mug of steaming coffee to sip at it with relief. For a moment Angie only looked at her, emotions flickering beneath the calm, open surface. 

"You are some kinda girl."

Angie's expression was warm with empathy and alight with an eagerness that told Peggy that she'd missed something.

"You've never seen Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, have you? That's it! I'm invading your private life, Cap, deal with it. Pick a night and I'll cook and bring the DVD."

A hand reached out to grip Peggy's wrist and Angie's smile was sweet and luminous.

"And thanks for your trust."

\----

_I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous._

_OMG, English, you even SPELLED it right!_

\----

There were all manner of good and bad things about owning your business. Steve knew that better than most as he'd always made his own way and Peggy had learned it all too quickly these last few months. So, yeah, master of their own destiny, blah, blah, blah, but also some insanely long hours. With a shift in busy times and lessening crowds, they decided to close off parts of the sprawling facility when they were slow and subsequently thinned out the staffing hours a bit. In celebration of their first six p.m. closing time, an impromptu grill night was called for and Steve sent Angie and Thor off with a credit card to stock them up. By 6:35 the place was swept and scrubbed and stocked, leaving the staff and their guests to tumble out into the sunset and the smell of savory things. 

"Park your asses, Steggy," Angie yelled merrily, pointing an imperious spatula at the couple and then their favorite oversized outdoor chaise lounge; one that didn't see enough use by half. The silly portmanteau had been a dubious gift from Angie and Sam that seemed to be sticking.

"You heard the lady," Steve leered playfully, scooping his wife up to drape them both all over the comfy piece of furniture. Pretending to be shocked at his behavior earned Peggy some chuckles, but she made no attempt at any escape and happily snuggled into him once they settled. It was odd to not be involved in the hubbub, so much of their lives had been in the thick of all the pandemonium of Walker Gym that it was a relief to sit back for one night. 

Not a surprise to anyone, Angie was right in the middle of the chaos, bossing the others around to various levels of amusement. She'd been a hit with the others across the board since that first day with her quick wit and high energy, even the enigmatic Natasha having warmed up.

Nuzzling at Peggy's ear, Steve murmured for her ears only, "you're thinkin' about it, aren't you? All those fantasies about that sexy young thing."

"Steven," she admonished him with no heat except for the attraction she had never denied. "I seem to remember you encouraging me."

"Well yeah. I do love it when you get hot and bothered."

"Never a problem, darling."

They were lost in one another easily, the nearly ten years of knowing one another, seven with rings on their fingers, never banking the fire between them. Half breaking the hot, slow kiss, Steve grinned wickedly and spoke softly against Peggy's mouth. "You're up, babe."

"Hmm?" she hummed distractedly, almost startling when she realized that Angie was standing just beyond arm's reach, hands full of bottles and a plate.

"Hungry?" Angie asked in a voice low and strained, pupils dilated in the fading evening light. Now, Peggy had never backed down from a challenge in her life and this girl wasn't exactly putting up much of a fight.

"Very."

There was so much unsaid in Peggy's purr of affirmation and she shifted her body to press that ravaged shoulder more firmly into Steve's chest so that she could reach out. Neither of them missed how Angie stepped closer in response to the outstretched hand before she caught herself and handed over the plate.

"Take a load off, Hotshot," Steve teasingly invited, easily shifting his and Peggy's weight to the side a few inches in invitation. "There's room enough for three."

For a moment, Angie didn't move, but she was as fearless as Peggy in her own way, and handed off two of the bottles in her hands before settling in next to Steve's hip. "Tasha said those are your favorites."

"They are," Peggy said easily, handing Steve the plate so that she could take a long draught of the hard cider she loved. One she'd missed through months of painkillers while she healed and grew used the constant pain of the nerve damage that left her arm mostly useless now.

"Nat put ya to work, huh?"

The comment was meant to be teasing, relaxing even, but Angie still looked tense, ready to flee, and she drank half the bottle in her hand in one long swallow. "No, I wanted to come over."

"We're glad to have you," Peggy encouraged, brushing her knuckles over the young woman's arm. None of them commented on the twitch of reaction, but none of them moved away either.

"Thanks," Angie murmured, picking at the label on her drink. "It's nice, having some… adult company."

The subtext was thick enough to be almost visible. 

With only a bit of encouragement, Angie rambled on quietly about her brothers and a bit about school, all of them relaxing into one another's energies and rhythms. Once dinner was ready, she shuttled over plates of burgers and sides, filling the rickety side table by the sweetly amused married couple. Finally Peggy laughed and grabbed her, dragging Angie's small frame down to be caught against her.

"Stop fussing, you. Sit. Eat."

"Yes ma'am," she grumbled good-naturedly and Steve laughed.

"You'll find it's better to just agree with her unless you really, really have to butt heads."

"Oh, I bet."

Peggy watched Steve prod Angie with a knee, teasing her with, "cider not your poison?"

Angie gave him a weird look and then glanced at the half-empty Coke in her hand. "Not legal yet, Big Guy. Close though. I figured I better behave myself." The corners of her mouth were a sly, possibly suggestive smile as she sipped at her soda. "For now, anyway."

Peggy kept from choking, but it was a near thing. Oh, lord, this girl was so young! The couple shared another loaded look. Oh sure, they had only both barely left their twenties behind, but still.

The flirting had been growing thicker since the movie a week ago, the push and pull of it growing ever more deliberate. 

\----

_Why is fresh air a lot like sex? Because it's no big deal unless you're not getting any._

_I can only assume this isn't Mikey_

_Ha, ha_

\----

"So when is your birthday?"

"No way! You're not getting it out of me that easily. And don't you dare charm it out my brothers, either."

"I have a photocopy of your drivers license. Hello."

"Mercenary. Fine. It's the twenty-second. You?"

"Sorry, ducks, you missed it! Early April."

"Damn. What about you, Superman? And don't pretend you can't hear me! I can hear you skulking around in the background."

"There's going to be no getting out of this, is there? Like I don't know that evil smile of yours, wifey. Yeah, yeah, laugh it up you evil she-wolves."

"Born on the fourth of July."

"Seriously? You're going to need a new nickname."

"I was afraid of that."

\----

_Finished that book you reced_

_Good! You like it?_

_You were right, I lvoed it. Shut up you._

_Moi? I'm not laughing._

_Lying liar who lies! Just for that, what's the difference between erotic sex and kinky sex? The feather or the whole chicken._

_LOL_

\----

It had taken a lot of persuasion to get Angie to let her new friends at the gym throw a party for her. After all, it wasn't every day you turned twenty-one! She'd reluctantly confessed to Steve that she was really bummed that she wouldn't be celebrating the milestone with the trio of besties in New York she spoke of so fondly. It made a body want to throw her in the car and drive the six plus hours to the Big Apple.

Thankfully, a better solution presented itself.

Having slipped away from the gym to get the apartment ready for company-- the first crowd the place would see-- Peggy was puttering around the makeshift bar, startling so badly when she turned back to the room that she nearly dropped the expensive whiskey in her hand.

"Bullocks, Angie, you startled the shit out of me."

The birthday girl smiled, but Peggy noticed it didn't reach her tired eyes. "Sorry, the door was open."

"You look like you could use a drink. Any preferences?"

Angie smirked and tried to look innocent. "Why, barkeep, I'm turning twenty-one just today, I have no idea what spirits I might like."

Peggy's blandly skeptical look made her giggle, the happiness chasing away some of the shadows.

"Something sweet and strong?"

"Done."

After a side trip to the kitchen for a glass of ice, Peggy poured a rich, spiced sipping whiskey and watched Angie's expression as she tested it. After a cough, she admired the glass. "That's yummy. After it finished kicking my teeth in."

"You're welcome. Don't gulp that. Sip it. I might be one armed, but I will kick your ass over that."

"Thought you were English, not Irish. Or whoever made this. Ow!"

Peggy had rapped her knuckles with a spoon, smirking smugly. "It's the principle, you heathen. Behave."

"But you like me sassy."

Another of those loaded moments that felt so much like a dance of subtle negotiation. Pausing, Peggy debated on an answer before saying quietly, "I do."

The moment was shattered by a riot of sound up the stairwell, both women looking over at the mass of bodies pouring in.

"Ange! You asshole! You're early!"

After a blink of shock, Angie was on them with a squeal of delight, nearly sending the whole pile back down the stairs. Thankfully Steve, expert belayer than he was, pushed mightily from behind and the pile reversed direction. Leaving the group to hug and talk in a loud babble, Steve went to his wife to kiss her lingeringly.

"Did the pack of wild dogs wear you out, darling?" she teasingly murmured against his mouth, soaking up the burr of his groan.

"They're insane. And here I thought it was just Martinelli."

"I heard that!"

Whatever had been casting shadows over her sunny personality was gone now in the presence of her friends from New York. They'd shown up at the gym earlier in the day, hoping Angie wasn't there, and ambushed Steve on the floor, fired up to put together some sort of blowout for their pal. He'd been all too happy to help, roping in Peggy and making sure the rest of the staff was filled in. So, whatever gaps there might have been in producing a proper party, the trio of New Yorkers filled in handily. Particularly in the alcohol department. The haul had required several trips out to their massive SUV, even with Steve helping sherpa. Part of the load had been their personal crap, stored down in the quiet room as no one was going to be in any condition to drive tonight.

With a quick hug for Angie and a loving kiss for the other brunette in the group, Jemma approached their hosts. "Despite her getting here early, I think that went quite well! Thank you for playing along. Now, Bobbi will be demanding snacks, so I came over to head off the rudeness and offer a hand."

Steve looked delighted and Peggy shook her head fondly at him, jabbing that little ticklish spot few knew about, much less could find. "One would think you were over ogling the accent, darling."

That made him laugh and grab at her to monster at her neck for a moment before sauntering off. "You've corrupted me thoroughly, English."

"I love him," Peggy sighed with affection. "And he's generally observant for a male, but is he is insufferably American. From Devon way, I'm guessing?"

Jemma nodded. "Ashbury, which means little to them." A nod of her head at her fellow college students made Peggy grin and gesture that they should follow Steve into the kitchen.

"We're both city girls then. I didn't get out of London much and I'm still not certain exactly how I ended up in New York."

That was Steve's cue to hand over some of the goodies he'd pulled out of the fridge so that he could grab more. "Yeah, but I know why you stayed."

Peggy would have poked him again if her one good arm hadn't been full.

\----

_Where are you?_

_Looking at the stars. Gettin starry eyed :)_

\----

It was late. Insanely late. Like 'how-the-hell-are-we-going-to-have-anyone-coherent-in-a-few-hours-to-open' late. Peggy was dead on her feet and somehow still smelled like mashed potatoes, even after changing her shirt. Angie had been so very excited over the massive load of foods brought in from some deli local to the New York apartment, particularly the pierogies. A surprisingly manic drunk, she'd turned into a hugging machine until one of the pierogies had ended up smashed between her and Peggy. At which she'd passed up making the expected flirty comment and instead had welled up with big, sad crocodile tears.

They had gently cut her off at that point.

Now the messy apartment was emptied, Steve and Thor having dragged the last partygoer down to the quiet rooms to sleep it off. Familiar footfalls on the stairs soothed her deeply.

"Okay, everyone's settled, even the redheaded leech. Thor was kind enough to volunteer as her teddy bear and she'll wake up embarrassed but happy in a puppy pile with Jane and Sam and the Big Guy."

"Good. Is the roof hatch still locked?"

Puzzled, Steve paused at the top of the stairs and looked up where said hatch was. "Appears to be. Why?"

"The guest of honor is stargazing somewhere."

"Hmmm. Come on, babe, let's find the lamb. If I know her, she's out by the grill."

"She can't possibly be hungry after the feast her pack brought in!"

"Not the point."

"And what is your point, Steven?"

At the bottom of the steps, he paused to turn and wrap her in a big hug, nuzzling at the soft underside of her jaw. "The grill patio is reasonably safe and smells good. She'll be there."

"She can hear you!"

Both of them jumped in surprise at the shout from beyond the security screen door.

"Don't gloat," Peggy warned her spouse and he laughed and swatted her affectionately towards the door. Angie was just sitting up from the oversized lounge chair where the couple normally cuddled, rubbing her eyes and yawning adorably. The cord to hidden earbuds pooled down to where Brahm was also getting up to greet his other humans.

"Sorry. Took your spot. I was over-warm and feelin' queasy so I came outside. But look."

With a wave of both arms, Angie drew their attention upward where the skies were littered by stars. "Good boy," Peggy murmured distractedly, rubbing Brahm's ears where he pressed into her hip.

"Very nice," Steve said just as quietly and herded Peggy along with gentle hands. "C'mon, fam. Stargazing is too hard of work standing up."

Imperiously large and male, Steve flopped himself prone behind Angie while Peggy sat more decorously beside her. When the birthday girl moved to stand, Steve's gentle hand on her knee and a bump from Peggy's ravaged shoulder halted the movement.

"Stay," Peggy whispered.

"There's room for three," Steve added almost soundlessly and Peggy was grateful to see Angie nod after a moment. They sat there, the three of them and the dog, looking up at the stars and the gradual lightening of the night sky turning towards the dawn. That overwhelming sense of promise, of inevitably held in the endless sky, loosened Peggy's tongue.

That, and she was simply so very, very tired.

"So, we'd wanted to ask you to stay. Here. Yes, here, you know, with us. For the night. Though that time has passed what with it being nearly dawn." Some sane part of her was horrified by the babbling, but couldn't find the brakes. "All this endless flirting and the jokes in the texts and your smiles, we can't help but wonder and wondering got us talking and we agreed that we had to ask or die of curiosity, but it's been so nerve-wracking trying to figure out how to ask without risking running you off because we honestly like you and would miss you so much if we ran you off and… and…"

A nervous glance showed Angie staring at her as though she'd gone quite mad. As it was an entirely uncharacteristic verbal upchuck-- her accent thick even to her own ears-- it was hardly a surprise. That dry, sarcastic, sane part of Peggy marveled that the whites of her eyes were probably showing, like some wild animal caught in a car's headlights.

The shocked silence stretched out, the roar of elevated heartbeats loud in each of their ears and the yawning gulf of awkwardness felt like an ocean. Steve made an uncomfortable noise and twitched, Peggy's eyes snapped over to meet his own, wide gaze. Had it been a miscalculation? How could they salvage this?

"Wait!" Angie yelled abruptly, her shell-shocked expression not changing. "Startled look does not mean, 'eew, you perverts'! No freaking out please. Just gimme a sec." Breathing deeply, she rubbed rough hands over her face before running off at the mouth. "It just means, 'wait me? Seriously?' No one takes me seriously, guys. Well, not very often anyway."

Peggy hated hearing the words, the vulnerability and self-castigation in this sweet soul. So she reached across her torso to touch Angie's knee opposite Steve's unmoving hand. The gesture made Angie startle, but she lashed out with surprisingly good reflexes to clamp their two hands to her legs. After a moment, Steve reached out with his free hand to rub lightly at the base of her neck.

"Sorry things just got weird, Ang. We just got too curious and, frankly, too turned on to stay quiet anymore."

The quiet comment made Angie huff in wet humor and squeeze their hands.

"I love you guys," she whispered thickly and glared fiercely firstly at Peggy than Steve. "And that has nothing to do with your question, dammit. You've been amazing friends and stuff and hell yes the answer is yes, god are you kidding me, and can I just kiss somebody before I completely ruin everything? Please?"

Half chuckling and half still twitchy with nerves, the married couple responded, Peggy giving in to the long-standing curiosity of what Angie's skin felt like beneath her lips, twisting her torso even as Steve sat up to press kisses to the other side of that slender neck. A strangled squeaky moan breathed up from Angie's chest and her clutching hands loosened to trace over the skin stretched over their knuckles and fingers.

Leaning back abruptly, she relied on Steve's hand on her back to steady her and watched while the gorgeous couple blinked back to the present. There was awe in her face as they both looked at her with wonder and lusty intent. Her sudden smile was like the approaching dawn, shy and egotistical mixed up like a cocktail. It was as endearing as nearly everything she did and her new potential lovers both grinned helplessly.

Then she noticed how uncomfortably Peggy was twisted around to try and accommodate that shoulder and startled all of them by leaping to her feet, nearly trampling patient Brahm. A gallant hand was offered with a shy smile and Peggy took the hint and allowed herself to be helped up. Nervous, but wanting what they had offered, Angie set shaking hands on Peggy's hips, not even noticing she'd swayed forward so that Peggy could press warm lips to her hairline. Steve smiled and lay back to watch in utter silence and scratch Brahm's head. 

"Can I kiss you?"

The whisper wasn't like Angie's usual exuberance and her eyes were still closed as Peggy crooked her finger to raise her chin. After a long moment, Peggy found herself grinning and her nerves easing. "Angie, darling. Open your eyes."

Stroking her thumb over her chin, Peggy waited until Angie obeyed, her trepidation perking up at the smile. She inhaled sharply as Peggy leaned in, their lips barely brushing.

"Yes."

It was sloppy and artless and wonderful, Angie making a soft, lusty sound that Peggy echoed, falling into the embrace. Too soon, Angie pulled away, making an impatient noise and grabbing Peggy's slack arm.

"This needs to move."

Chuckling breathlessly, Peggy made no move to fight the small, imperious hands firmly, but gently, shifting the body brace so that her arm lay against her side instead of her belly. Then she was kissed properly, those hands buried in her hair, the explorations curious and ever more wanton.

By the time they came up for air, Peggy had her sound arm clamped tight around Angie's ribs, her weak hand trembling against her warm waist.

"Wow," Angie marveled breathlessly and blinked for a moment before suddenly looking over where Steve lay quietly, watching with a smirk on his handsome face.

"Don't stop on my account," he said easily, expression wreathing into an easy grin.

"Ass," was Peggy's easy response, earning a rolling chuckle laced with lusty interest. 

"Flatterer. Come're before you fall down. My poor girl, got your socks knocked off, huh?"

The teasing made Peggy grumble, but she willingly enough sat down on him to carefully sprawl out. With practiced ease, Steve ripped open the velcro holding her arm captured and drew up the wasted limb to stretch it, making Peggy groan at the pleasure/pain of the sensation. Then he patted the spot next to his hip invitingly.

"Come on, you too. I dunno about anything that may or may not happen now or in the future, but right this second, you look like you could use a cuddle."

Angie was too tired and bamboozled to fight the offer, collapsing to the chaise and snuggling into his side so that he could drape an undemanding arm around her. Both women lay close, heads tucked up against Steve's chin and throat, fingers intertwining. Angie leaned her head back to nuzzle Steve's chin, not stifling the faint giggle at the whisper of stubble on his skin. In turn, he leaned his head to kiss the corner of her closed eye, lips a velvety contrast to his skin. Echoing Brahm's gusty sigh, Peggy snuggled close to her companions, squirming until Steve helped find a comfortable position for that arm.

"Best birthday ever."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So far, I have hopes to keep these three going! Thank you again, readers!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the aftermath of Angie's birthday, negotiations move forward!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I forgot that I had this chapter done! Ooops? My guess is that I meant to get it betaed and completely forgot about it. So, I did a reread and it seems solid. 
> 
> Now, it's yours too.

_B_morse_ful: Aww, so cute. Sinner, repent!_

_Daisychain: Get it gurl!_

_Captain Britain: This is how you spend your summer vacation? Well, at least be careful! Oh, and, go you?_

\----

Astonishingly, the trio was left to sleep until the sun was too bright to ignore.

Though the pictures taken and forwarded to Angie's phone with inappropriate commentary from her pack earned blushes later. But there was no thought of that as Angie woke blearily, warm and cool in odd places all over her body. With a start, she realized she remained cuddled up with Peggy and Steve, each of them with a strong arm wrapped around her torso as embrace and anchor. She had insinuated one leg over Steve's at one point, nestled tight against Peggy's between his thick thighs.

It was enough to make her almost ignore the blaze of hot sunlight filtered through her eyelids and Peggy's dark hair.

"Morning," Steve said quietly and it was a rumble beneath her ear. She felt the muscles in his shoulder and throat and upper chest flex as he made a humming sound. Peggy stirred and grumbled petulantly before giggling faintly, the girlish sound dropping into something warm and sensual.

Angie went hot and cold all over, aching with a need they stirred in her, trapped in the circle of their strong arms. A soft, wet sound told her that Peggy was indeed being teased awake, her grip tightening. The exact moment of awareness was a small jolt of shock, dark eyes blinking in the messy riot of brown hair.

"Oh," she murmured and Steve chuckled that low, dirty sound meant only for private moments.

And it was a private moment, warm and weird and full of promise. 

"So, I think your pals might have snuck out here and taken pictures," Steve chortled and blinked against the sun's glare as Peggy arched her body up awkwardly to give him a proper kiss. The words took a moment to register as Angie stared in distraction and tried to ignore the tingling sensation of her arm--trapped between their bodies, to fade.

"Oh shit…"

Not her most graceful move, no. Despite powerful arms making an attempt at rescue, Angie slid off the chaise to bump down to the ground where Brahm could lick her face. Sure enough, her phone wasn't in her damn pocket, but sitting on the side table.

"God dammit, Skye. Could steal my fucking underwear even fully conscious. Stupid pickpocket…" Grumbling direly, she checked and sure as hell, found several pictures of the puppy pile on the chaise… that had already been forwarded to all three of their phones. Along with the required smartass text messages. "Assholes," she complained fondly and set aside the phone to rub at her aching eyes. Peggy picked the phone up to eye the pictures once she'd sat up to settle imperiously on Steve's lap.

"These are cute. But how the hell were they functional with only two hours of sleep?"

"Oh please. This little shindig? This is a Tuesday night for those animals."

Each of them stroked Angie's head, Peggy standing wobbily so that Steve could sit up and cup his hand under her elbow. With a throaty sound, Peggy worked herself into a long stretch, making the useless arm look all the more useless in contrast. When her feet were once again steady on the ground, she nodded at Steve. "Go on."

He pushed, gently but firmly, raising that shoulder in a shrug-like movement and making Peggy hiss after a long moment. "There." So he held the pose while she flexed her shaky, weak right hand to increase circulation as best she could. "Okay, that's better. Thank you, darling."

"My pleasure, babe."

With practiced motions, they together entrapped the arm once more, Angie watching the whole thing in fascination. Not the routine itself, but their sensual ease with one another. Then Steve grinned at her and rolled to his side to clamp his big left hand around the base of her slender neck. There were many a male that would scare the hell out of her doing it, but not this one. Then he flexed thick fingers, gently digging into the inactivity-kinked muscles.

The moan wasn't a fake. At all.

Sure, she'd gotten rubdowns a couple times, but with the earlier foreplay-- and sleeping curled along his body-- the touch had whole new layers. Crossing her arms over raised knees, Angie rested her head and let him do what he would. He'd traversed the entirety of her long neck, tenderly caressing the base of her skull, before the door creaking announced Peggy's return.

Angie hadn't even noticed her leaving.

"Things are subdued, but functional. I think Natasha actually flushed when I teased her about falling asleep all over Thor. I have your bag, Angie, and your pack left word about a spa visit in Columbus?"

It took some effort to lazily raise her head and smile drunkenly. "Yeah, that sounds about right. Christ, I see why you keep this gorilla around now."

"He does have his uses, yes."

Even Angie had to chuckle at their flirting, Steve grunting and leaping up from the chaise to shamble at Peggy like a caveman. She drew herself up primly and stared him down.

"Yes, yes, wildman. Now, if you'll collect the pretty little thing, shall we go get hosed off and presentable?"

Angie couldn't stop giggling as Steve lumbered over to easily drag her body across his shoulders and follow Peggy back upstairs. It was silly and sort of touching, to be included in the games, watching as Steve grabbed Peggy's ass near the top of the stairs and she mockingly bitched at him. In the living room, Steve set Angie down and sent her after Peggy with a swat to the rear.

"The lady of the house will show you where you can clean up. I'll be with you in a sec, Peg."

Tucked behind a decorative screen lay a door that led to the private areas of the apartment, mercifully left untouched by the party last night. Behind it was a peek into the couple that Angie drank in. The short hallway was painted a rich, blood red with sconces lighting the ceiling like a firestorm. There were four large black and white photos beautifully framed, each with their own tiny spotlight.

Unable to stop herself, Angie hung back and absorbed as much from the first pair of pictures as she could. The first was a wedding shot, both of them dressed up in their formals and heavy motorcycle boots, straddling a pair of heavy bikes, laughing and kissing while well-wishers tossed rice and laughed along.

"We sold the bikes to help pay for this," Peggy offered quietly. "Not an easy decision, but worth it."

As Angie-- only daughter of a lifelong mechanic-- was pretty sure that Steve's bike was an old WWII Harley-Davidson WLA and Peggy's was definitely an Indian, probably from the tail end of the company switching hands every few years for awhile there.

"Good guess. An '03 Scout."

"I was muttering out loud again, huh?"

"It's cute."

Ignoring the blush, Angie looked opposite the wedding pic to see a dramatic shot of a small, corporate-looking jet with a cityscape laid out far below it. It took a moment to recognize the Hudson and the bridges stretching across it. 'Stark Industries PEG-12' was emblazoned in small letters in the lower right hand corner. When she looked questioningly at Peggy, the darker woman grinned in fond exasperation. 

"Howard Stark was my employer. That is our mutual favorite mode of transportation, which in his particular and perverse sense of humor, he named after me. That was the first one off the line and no one else touched her but me. I miss her and it wouldn't surprise me if she's been mothballed in some hanger. Howard and I are both hopelessly sentimental and perhaps even a bit superstitious that way."

Of course Angie knew of Stark Industries, had seen the huge, weird-looking building that towered over Grand Central Station, even bought some of their tech here and there. 

"You must have kicked his ass at one point to keep his hands off of you."

That made Peggy burst out laughing; a full-body belly laugh that shook her whole body. When Steve stepped into the hallway, she just wandered off, waving her hand in some vague gesture, still cracking up. When Angie explained to Steve, he laughed as well, a rolling chuckle.

"Oh, she kicked his ass alright, and he adored her for it. Respected the hell out of her, no matter how he jokingly leered. Good man at heart once you figured him out."

Feeling not unpleasantly crowded, Angie moved down to look at picture three, a big group shot of jovial-looking people hanging all over each other, smiling and happy. Among them were a scruffy, shaggy-haired Steve with his arms wrapped around a long-haired Natasha and a dark-haired man. Peggy was perched on one shoulder of a massive bear of a man with a wild ruff of flaming red curls that ran from mid-neck to his crown with barely a break even for eyes and a wide smile. They ran the gamut from a waif of a teen getting his hair ruffled to an older fellow who had to be in his sixties and had weary but kind eyes.

"Our old gang," Steve said simply and there was a wealth of mixed emotions in those three words. 

The final picture took a moment to figure out, shapes backlit by a window flooded with light. When Angie figured it out, the jolt was a visceral one. Brahm stretched along a rumpled bed, his fuzzy shape making the angular metal struts of medial apparatus all the more stark and ominous. Along the back of his head, two hands were intertwined, one of the arms reaching out from behind the camera. There was still a hospital bracelet on what was clearly Peggy's left wrist.

"She wasn't real pleased at first," Steve said quietly, "But it reminds us both, just like the wedding pic, to never take anything for granted."

It wasn't often that Angie Martinelli was at a loss for words, but the glimpses of intimacy in the pictures had done just that.

"Shower, then we'll eat and talk, k?"

In a nicely appointed guest suite, Angie stripped and took a long, hot shower, soaking up the heated sluice of water as more than just a physical experience. It soothed down hangover and confused feelings and the burn of sensual curiosity that that had been plaguing her since meeting the sexy couple. She heard her phone buzz while shampooing, the water temporarily off. It was just as likely to be family as the lunatics she called pack.

Eventually, she was just procrastinating. And wasting water. Which mysteriously remained as hot as when she started and she'd have to ask, because what water heater lasted that long and maybe it was like the one in the NY apartment, that on-demand thing and…

Shaking off her mental rambling, Angie checked her phone, noticing she had a voice mail. With the speaker on, she set it down to play said message while she toweled off.

" _Hey there, Angie. Well, we… umm need to talk. Nothing bad! I promise, just… we need to talk_ ," Jemma stammered, clearly in full 'OMG A TEST' mode.

"Chill, Hermione," Angie chuckled to herself as Skye's voice broke in with a rambunctious shout.

" _Let us know when we can abduct you from the hotties!_ "

Bobbi's voice was too far from Jemma's phone to be clear, but Angie was certain she said something like, 'she'll be chill,' before the message cut out mid-laugh.

Oh well, no point in worrying what her maniac crew was up to, she had her own weirdness to deal with right now.

In casual athletic clothes and barefoot, Angie gathered her crap and padded out into the apartment, freezing as she spotted Steve cleaning up. Actually, they both did, the moment of awkwardness broken with Peggy's merry shout of, "toast, Steve!"

Flashing a quick grin, he did as ordered, Angie trailing along in his wake. In the bright light of morning and with Peggy busy at the stove, the weird arrangement of the kitchen made sense suddenly. The small sink wedged in next to a range and a butcher-block top and crammed in between two workspaces, one as neat and large as the other was chaotic and tiny. But the tiny space was set up to accommodate Peggy's lamed arm and the shared workspace between allowed Steve to reach across and help when she needed it. Now that Angie understood it, the space was as wacky and brilliant as that insane apron. In a lurid pink kiss-print pattern, it was a mishmash of pockets and loops, quilted for heat insulation all down her front and the protective pocket for her right arm. That way the useless limb could help by being a shelf, kept safe from the dangers of burning.

"He's quite handy," Peggy offered with a grin that was nervous at the corners. Steve waggled his fingers and mimed using a sewing machine, pausing in gathering supplies to steal a quick smooch. They were always so tactile, aware of one another and still so clearly mad about each other. Who wouldn't find that irresistible? That they were both sexy as hell didn't hurt.

Clearing her throat around her high nerves and the itch she really hope she'd get scratched, Angie approached what was clearly Steve's workstation and noticed a few dishes waiting to be cleaned. Oh what a relief, a nice, manageable task! It was until she dropped a glass, all of them freezing at the rattle of glass against stainless steel. It didn't break, but Angie wasn't certain she trusted herself to pick it up again.

"I'll… just go wait in the living room."

Feeling like the school nerd after bumping into the head cheerleader crush or some other cheesy trope, Angie crashed face first to the couch and lay there with her arms huddled beneath her. Groaning softly, she wished she'd rubbed one out in the shower so she wasn't such a jittery mess. A whuff of air on a whine let her know that Brahm had sensed her distress and consternation and was doing his doggy duty of providing comfort by resting his heavy head on her shoulder blade. It helped and Angie wormed out an arm to reach over her shoulder to skritch the thick white fur. She jumped when something clicked onto the table beside her, a glance revealing Steve's big hand moving away from a glass of tomato juice.

"Hair of the dog," he said quietly and left her alone again. For a moment she only stared at it before sighing and sitting up to drink what turned out to be a really tasty bloody mary while Brahm lay his adoring head on her lap. It was well made and with only a touch of vodka that she barely noticed. There was also coffee brewing, the scent mixing in with the tasty diner smells. A rumbling belly was a good way to set aside emotional crisis and Angie left Braham to take up her warm spot and crept back to the kitchen, not caring that she looked like a starved puppy. 

"Good timing," Peggy greeted her with that same slightly forced cheer and waved a spatula at one of three plates. "Guest eats first. Whatever you don't eat the dogs will."

Obligingly, Steve howled, echoed by Brahm in the living room. Despite her nerves and multiple hungers, Angie had to smile and take the plate Steve handed off. A plate she very carefully carried to the table with both hands to prevent further accidents. Then she returned for coffee and was tickled to find a carton of 1% milk in the fridge to raid. Breakfast was a trio of slim crepe-like rolls that seemed as much egg as batter, filled with sautéed veggies and bacon.

"These are really good," she complimented around a mouthful as Peggy was swatted off to eat by an amused Steve.

"I'm glad you like them. These are a staple around here; quick to prepare and endlessly versatile."

'And easy to make with one hand,' was the unspoken part of that statement and Angie nodded. Pretty soon Steve joined them, setting down a stack of thin pancakes in the center of the table beside a jar of applesauce and some maple syrup.

"There's always too much batter and the staff doesn't age well. So, bonus pancakes."

The tension was a low-key thrum in the room as they ate and made small talk and Angie sampled the tiny pancakes with applesauce. The bits and pieces left were scraped onto one plate and carried off to Brahm, before Steve once more sat at the table and they all stewed in the reawakened nervousness.

Peggy finally broke the quiet, her voice low and accent crisper than usual. "Are you all right? If you're nervous, we can call this off."

And there was the way out. Part of Angie wanted to take it, but it was only a small part. Mostly, she still stood by her 'yes' of the night before, even if she was nervous as hell now. So she stared into her coffee mug and said somewhat dazedly, "y'know, I am nervous as hell, I'm not arguin' that. I'm also so horny I'm gettin' the shakes."

There was a long, pregnant silence before Angie sighed heavily, full of self-castigation.

"Hey, hey," Steve's calm voice broke up the thick quiet. "We meant what Peggy said last night. We're attracted to you, Angie, and we like you." Then he tilted his head just like Brahm would, making Angie smile despite the stressful situation. "Would you like a hug?"

Without giving herself a chance to freak out any more than she was already, Angie murmured an affirmative and nearly threw herself into the offered hug. Like the night before, he was warm and solid and gentle. He also smelled better, not like the aftermath of a wild party in a crowded space. Snorting with humor, she clung tighter to his neck when he asked what was funny.

"You smell nice."

Or, she could just run at the mouth more. That was always an option. There was a scrape of sound and Peggy leaned into the embrace, her weight and heat as grounding as Steve.

"So… um… I don't have a whole lot of experience with guys. Actually, outside of a few awkward dates in high school, you're sorta a huge unknown…"

A soft chuckle was swallowed down into a clearing of his throat and Steve spoke with remarkable evenness for the tension of the situation. "Okay, that's as good a place to start as any. One, thank you for your honesty, Ang. Two, that's totally okay. I'm fine being an observer."

That really did startle Angie and she sat back and twisted until she could see both of their faces. "Really? That's it?"

"Really," Peggy said easily. "This isn't the movies and the only rules are the ones all three of us set."

Dazed, but still her sassy self, Angie fired Steve a half-mocking impatient look. "Well, go on, boss man."

This time, he did laugh and gave her an affectionate squeeze for good measure. "The basic rules are simple. We talk everything out, and no fooling around unless everybody's present. If that means I just get to watch? Not a problem and can be renegotiated at any time. This is supposed to be fun and not uncomfortable for everybody."

The married couple looked expectantly at Angie, who took a moment to react, somewhat nonplussed. "Oh… Oh, okay. I can do that."

More gentle amusement warmed her, both of them shifting to smooth affectionate hands over her back. Delighted with them, and too curious to resist, Angie ducked in to press an awkward kiss to Steve's smiling mouth. Despite the firm lines of his face, his mouth was decadently soft as he nuzzled her back, no demand in him. It was intoxicating to be pressed between them, Peggy a drugging softness cloaking that hidden strength in her a delicious contrast to the chiseled power of Steve's body beneath her hands.

Steve was very polite, letting her control the kissing, only coaxing with a bit of friendliness as she leaned more heavily into him. Peggy had no such self-control and gleefully ran her hand over Angie's skin and her belly to stroke the underside of a breast while she suckled and kissed at that long, elegant neck. Angie felt Steve's arm reach around and Peggy's hips jerked into her ass with a growl that was half lust and half warning. The rumble of filthy chuckle in the broad chest beneath her hands was a bigger turn on than Angie would have guessed.

"You good?" Steve murmured softly when Angie let up only far enough to rest forehead to forehead with him, their breath mingled.

"I'm good. You're just… really good at that."

Both of the halves of the married couple chuckled and they all just rested together for a long moment.

"A girl could get used to this, bein' squashed between you two and I swear, English, if you mistake that for a hint to move, I'll smack you."

That made Steve stifle a loud ruckus of laughter as Peggy sank back into the embrace with a grumble. "I wasn't."

"You're a rotten liar."

Squirming around on Steve's thick thighs, Angie craned her neck to catch Peggy in a wet, sloppy kiss and bury her fingers in that lush, dark hair. While she was more familiar territory, Angie also couldn't find enough inner trepidation to shift away from Steve's mass… even when she could feel he was getting excited.

"That's a hell of a peculiar sensation, big guy," she murmured against Peggy's lips and earned a note of amusement. 

"You are squirming around in the poor lad's lap."

"Yeah, poor him."

Words were forgotten as the women kissed, Steve caressing each almost idly until there was a sudden racket of sound echoing up the stairwell. 

"Dammit," Angie sighed and leaned away from Peggy's intoxicating mouth to give Steve a quick smooch before squirming to be let up. Sure enough, the noise had voices mixed in amidst the pounding at the door. "I better make myself scarce and drag my hooligans off with me. Those idiots will break down the fucking door, I swear… God dammit, you three, keep your panties on! I'll be down in a second!"

Unsurprisingly, her shout down the stairwell earned cackling laughter, but at least the noise died down a bit. Nervous suddenly, Angie grabbed her bag that acted as purse and steeled herself before returning to the kitchen. For a brief moment, she caught Peggy and Steve locked in an easy, intimate embrace before they looked over to her, eyes dark with sensual purpose. For a long moment, Angie was rendered silent with sheer nerves and the breathless anticipation in the room. Frankly, she was having a hard time stringing words together.

"Can--" with a sharp uplift of tone, her voice broke spectacularly, making Angie sound like a nervous teenage boy. It seemed appropriate somehow and she cleared her throat noisily. "Can I come back here tonight? We'll all feel better then, not so hungover, and I can ditch my idiots, god willing…"

In moments, they were crowding her, mouths pressed to the corners of hers in an odd three-way kiss that seemed entirely appropriate. It was less awkward than Angie would have imagined and she drank in the contact for a moment.

"Come by any time," Peggy whispered.

"We'll make time for you," Steve added with a warm smile and Angie gave them a last squeeze and broke for the stairs, looking back longingly at them. The urge to stay was magnetic, pulling at her very cells.

"Ugh, this is so not fair," she muttered and forced herself to clatter down the steps and unlock the backdoor to bellow at her friends. "Christ, you animals, okay, here I am. Lead on, already!"

\----

_So, I haven't sent you a terrible joke in awhile, and I've doublechecked that this ISN'T going to Mikey, because I would be hunted down and killed! -- I bought a racehorse today and I named him My Face. I don't care if he doesn't win, I just want to hear a load of posh twats shouting, "Come on My Face!"_

_I blame my pack for this…_


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm hoping for an epilogue for a bit more fun and games with these rats, but this is also an excellent place to break. I love this version of these characters so much and I've had so much fun with them!
> 
> Hopefully, we shall meet again for this tale. :)

_What is hard and pink when it goes in and soft and wet when it comes out? Bubblegum you dirty minded pervert!_

\----

For some time, the friends were the same as any other morning-after, hyper and hungover and brimming over with chattering. It was going to be another scorcher, but none of them could bear the idea of the dry air of industrial air conditioning and went to a café across town that Angie recommended. Her dad didn't like the place, so she was reasonably certain that she could avoid looking her family in the eye for a bit longer. Still, she took the time to snap off a greeting and a cheesy joke to be passed on to Mickey. Then she quickly scanned the 'net to send something raunchier to Peggy's phone, because it seemed the thing to do.

Now, Angie was no idiot, and she knew these women well, even if Skye was still an enigma sometimes, but something odd was going on. It was subtle, a faint shiftiness of eyes, the lilt in their voices, a twitchiness in busy hands. Nothing obvious, just a lot of little clues. Amusingly, it was more clear on the normally composed picture of feline indolence that was Bobbi than Jemma, who was normally the world's worst liar. 

Angie waited for the perfect moment to strike. The café was quiet on a Wednesday afternoon, and they were effectively alone in the summer heat outdoors. All she had to do was keep an eye out for all three of her pals to be engaged in something and then speak bluntly.

"What the fuck are you three being so weird about?"

Jemma dropped her fork, Skye coughed on a cracker and Bobbi spluttered into her coffee cup, making the liquid run down her chin. Enormously pleased with her timing, Angie watched Bobbi cuss and scramble for napkins while Jemma slapped Skye's back until she was waved off. They glowered sourly at an extremely smug Angie, who sat back with an expectant look.

"Well, come on then, confess whatever has you squirming like sinners in church. You already caught me out in a puppy pile with my nice, married, swinger employers. Nothing you say can beat that, right?"

The trio exchanged glances and Angie suddenly worried.

"Right?"

Strangely, it was Skye that piped up, voice and shoulders tense. "Y'know, funny that you should mention that…"

Of course, their server bustled over in that moment with their nibblies and coffee refills and inquiries if they needed anything. He'd only just walked away when Angie suddenly got it. All the weirdness between her three closest friends, a closeness grown deeper that she hadn't been a part off, that she assumed had just been her being so busy with school and wanting to be home for the summer. It all clicked.

"You guys."

A flat statement, her mug gesturing to include all three of them, slightly owl-eyed and unnerved.

"All three of you."

It was Jemma, sweet, sunny Jemma that spoke up, leaning towards her established girlfriend in Skye, but touching Bobbi's arm so tenderly that Angie couldn't fathom how she'd missed it. "Yes. It started out just fun, but it's more now."

"We thought you'd be weird about it!" Skye nearly wailed, clearly remembering being the odd woman out with the tightly-knit roomies back when she had first been getting to know Jemma. "Then we spotted you with your sexy gymrats and were… well… relieved?"

Every eye drifted to Bobbi, still uncharacteristically silent, expression still. She had always been an odd one, basking in being rich and eccentric and ten and more years older than the rest of them. College would be a whim, were she not brilliant and driven as hell. Her sprawling and eclectic apartment had become a haven for her fellow women students and she refused to accept more than a token pittance to live there. 

"I figured you'd think I was sleeping my way through the apartment."

That made Angie scowl and wince. They'd been more fuckbuddies than a real couple, but things had still remained a little tense, never returning to the ease before. Sighing, Angie ran her hands over her face and scalp. "Yeah, okay, I'll give you that one. Soooooo… y'all are serious, huh?"

The lame attempt at reaching out had an instant effect, her friends not looking as though they were ready to run screaming from the room.

"Yes, we're uh, trying it out," Jemma stammered, flushed from collar to cheekbones.

"Well, good."

The quiet about as comfortable as a cinderblock to the foot and Angie somewhat desperately excused herself to visit the bathroom. Pooling cold water into her hands, she buried her face into the puddle and blew bubbles in lieu of sobbing or screaming from the completely bizarre twists and turns her life had taken. Then she stared at her reflection, ignoring the droplets dripping from her skin. Did she care that her roomies had taken the concept of being a pack to a different level? Did she?

Sort of, she supposed, but they were all adults and could make their own choices. And it wasn't as though she were attracted to any of them. Not even Bobbi really, which is why the sexual stress relief had fizzled out after awhile. Each was an attractive woman, but they were more the sisters she'd always wanted than anything else. She just felt rattled that they couldn't tell her, had needed to sneak around, even behind her back. Hadn't they been able to tell each other anything? 

Yet, Angie knew, as sure as the breath in her lungs, that things would never be exactly the same again. The casual intimacy of the bunch, Jemma's feet in her lap, Bobbi stealing sips from her glass-- and never remembering to close the damn bathroom door when she was in there-- even Skye shouldering her way in to commandeer Angie's laptop… it would never be quite like that again.

There were a few tears mixed in with the water that dripped slowly into the sink. 

The bloody mary had taken a little begging to get, but Angie guessed that the look on her face really sold her desperation. Right now, she needed to maintain the faint buzz to stave off the stress of the morning and the clutch of hangover still tight around her skull. The taste reminded her of her own strange morning, the taste of Peggy and Steve, their laughter and kindness and the sexual pull they exuded that made her feel like she was full of need and static.

"You and me are going to be okay," Angie said abruptly as she returned to her seat and clacked her nearly empty glass to the table. "But I'm gonna be a little weird for a bit, so be patient. Now, I can't handle anything else with any weight right now, so for the love of Cate Blanchet, please tell me you have some juicy gossip or one of your endless stories."

It was a bit like a diesel engine, slow to warm, but once they got moving, the awkwardness mostly fell away, their rapport enough to smooth over the worst of the awkward edges. However, once they were ready to continue on to their day in Columbus, Angie begged off. They all needed some time to process and she needed to see Mikey's sweet face and get a big, suffocating hug from her father. For at least a few hours, she just needed to be Angie, and set aside all this grownup bullshit.

"Geee!"

The scream and the flying tackle did her aches and pains no favors, but Angie swept him into a crushing hug and spun him around anyway.

"Hey, little brother! Is it okay if I spend the day with you? I've been sorta busy lately."

Mikey was incandescent with joy and thrilled to provide the perfect distraction. After video games and a sweat-inducing romp of tag and Transformers in the yard, they settled into watching the Lion King yet again. Angie didn't mind, happy with Mikey sprawled into her side and a snack of apple slices and 7-Up that Gina brought to them. With the conclusion of their favorite Disney film, Mikey was willing to let her escape, provided she was close by. 

Thankfully, there was always a machine in the garage to be tinkered with. Her dad joined her and kept the conversation light, despite it being clear that he wanted to pry. Even Luke was laid back and jovial for a change, helping out for a bit before they gathered for dinner. It was like old times, a happy, warm haven that allowed Angie to settle back into her own skin. And with that sense of self and comfort, it was time to be brave once more. With a casual mention that there was plenty of crash space at the gym, she was ready to go take her insane chance. With a backpack containing some sundries and her ever-present messenger bag, she was off at an easy lope towards her destination.

The quiet neighborhoods that had once felt so confining were a source of peace now, rural-ish Ohio a far cry from the insanity of New York City. She loved both places and time in each was a balm to her restless, creative soul. Neighbors were out as darkness closed in and the smell of green growing things and grilling were heavy in the air. It smelled delicious to be sure, but she was hungry for something other than food now.

\----

_What light through Yonkers window breaks_

It only took a moment for the curtains to rustle and Peggy's dark head to appear over the balcony railing. "Did you just terribly misquote Shakespeare at me?"

Grinning in what Angie hoped was an adorable and not slightly terrified way, she shrugged. "I was going for charming. And the autocorrect is an asshole."

"Honestly," she was pretty sure she heard muttered as Peggy retreated and Angie trotted around the building to the back door. 

"Jesus, you've got great legs."

The lusty comment fell out of Angie's mouth like dropping a dish and Peggy laughed. She was dressed in one of Steve's shirts and it barely fell to modesty.

"Not the tits?"

The cheek made Angie join in on the merriment, for said tits filled out the big shirt better than someone less well-endowed would have. The old-fashioned sling made of some stretchy fabric also molded one breast nicely. 

Pulling Angie inside, Peggy locked the door and they fell into a hug. Much of the weird day fell away and Angie sighed gustily.

"I missed you. Both of you."

"We missed you as well, darling. Come upstairs and unwind."

With a quick, hard kiss, Peggy took Angie's hand and led the way. For a moment, Angie wanted to go for more, craving the other woman's touch, but she remembered the rules. A short delay would change nothing and she went along eagerly. The temptation roared up all the stronger when the climb up the stairs gave a few hints there might be nothing under that big shirt. Angie didn't trip up the stairs, but it was a near thing. The public parts of the apartment were dimly lit and had clearly been scrubbed up from the excesses of last night.

"Did you have a nice day?"

"Honestly, it was a mixed bag." Angie had meant to say more, but the new territory of the main bedroom distracted her. In a glance, she took in the basics of the space, but was distracted by Steve in the gigantic bed, head propped up on a fist. He looked like a classical statue, all bare skin and sculpted muscle with only a sheet tossed over his hips as scandalously low as the buttons on Peggy's borrowed shirt.

"You guys are like a couple of walking felonies."

With a gentle prod, Peggy encouraged her to walk further into the room, Steve's blue eyes warm and watching.

"Well you did express a prurient interest back on the day we met."

Blushing, Angie rubbed her face with both hands. "Yeah, that was embarrassing, but I can't complain about the end result."

"You look exhausted," Steve said softly and Angie nodded.

"Pack drama and then the pleasant exhaustion of a day with family. Right now, I'd really rather not think about them. Just wanna be here, with you guys."

Steve nodded as Peggy pressed close, touching Angie's hip and nuzzling into her neck. "Would you like to make yourself more comfortable?"

Murmuring affirmative, Angie let her bags slip from shoulder to hand to be gently tossed aside. Hormones or no hormones, there was stuff in there to be respectful of. Leaning her head back to give Peggy room to get at more of her sensitive neck, she tugged at her own shirt, wanting the Englishwoman's hand on her skin.

"Might Steve help out, darling?"

Shyly, Angie nodded and he sat up, dragging the sheet with him to pool around his hips. But he didn't touch, eyes intense until she paid close attention.

"If it's yes, say it out loud. I want to know where I'm welcome."

The words were firm, his tone gentle and she nodded again, swallowing hard. "Yes. I understand. Yes, touch. Please."

With five eager hands, the shirt was tossed away and Angie groaned to find herself loosely trapped between them, kisses tracing over her neck and belly, calloused fingers tracing her shape. The yeses grew more difficult to articulate, her knees shaking as they skillfully soothed and stroked her to distraction. The stretchy bra was easily stripped, tossed away into the room, their combined hands fumbling at the button and zipper on Angie's shorts.

There was a burst of clumsiness and giggling as she nearly took a header during the ensuing struggle with the denim and was sent to the bed with a ringing swat across the ass by Peggy. 

"Climb in, missy, while I grab your things. You do not want to witness what Brahm is capable of doing to loose articles of clothing, believe me."

"He's usually a good boy," Steve commented conversationally as Angie wriggled out of the rest of her clothes with his help. "But we're never positive he'll behave himself with clothing that smells interesting to him."

Flustered with the whole situation, the implication of what 'smells interesting' embarrassed her, but nonetheless, she settled into the bed after Steve retreated and left plenty of elbow room. By that point, Peggy finished her quick errand, standing beside the bed to peel away the sling, gently lowering her lamed arm to hang at her side. It was clearly not comfortable, but it allowed her to squirm out of her borrowed shirt, baring herself completely. Angie had known she would be a stunner, but stared in awe anyway. Peggy was slim and curvy and muscled except for that right arm, grown weak with enforced disuse. Scars ran like railroad tracks over the shoulder where surgeons had stitched her together as best they could. There was a hint of self-consciousness in her expression and Angie reached out, to offer a hand in welcome.

"C'mere, gorgeous. Teach me what you like and I'll do the same."

Steve reached over her to help brace the deadweight arm as Peggy settled into the bed and Angie forced her brain to function past her arousal to take notes. Then, suddenly, she was pressed between the heat of their bodies, overwhelmed and heart thundering. Awed, she traced Peggy's face for a moment before half rolling over to watch Steve's expression, feel his solidness against her. 

"You can touch." Clearing her throat, she stammered awkwardly. "I-- I mean, I'd like you to touch, and you're a hell of a kisser. We'll negotiate that," a vague gesture towards their collective nether regions made him grin. "Later. Deal?"

"Deal."

The confirmation was whispered against Angie's mouth and words were forgotten as Steve kissed her, slowly and deeply and very thoroughly. A sharp inhale made him shift back a hairsbreadth to watch her blissful expression and enjoy the grip of her hands in his hair. Peggy's long hair was splayed over pale skin as she nuzzled and explored.

"Fu-uck," Angie stutter-hissed, back arching. "Don't tease. I've been achin' for this since the day I met you. Please."

"Will I get the chance to tease later?" Peggy grinned from behind the tousled fall of her hair. "After all, we've been aching for you too."

"Anything you want."

"That's quite the offer."

With a bit of maneuvering, Peggy sat up with her weak side braced against Steve's hip so that she could use her hand, Angie's legs splayed around her. 

"Guess it's up to me to keep this smart mouth busy," he teased, cupping a big hand around her jaw and rubbing his thumb over her bottom lip. Attention torn in multiple directions, Angie's eyes were at half-mast, her gaze unfocused, caught up in the feeling of them all over her. The pair of strong left hands touched, stroked and teased, mapping out her skin and bones. Not knowing if she was a biter-- and it wouldn't surprise him in the least if she were-- Steve decided to stick to safer territory. While he kissed his way down her exposed throat, his free hand led the way downward towards Peggy.

Lost in the pleasures in her primed body, Angie did her damned best to ignore any sense of 'what the fuck am I doing' and just went with the experience. Peggy stroked the tense tendons at the inside of her thighs, a tactile connection that led to a gentle pet over the darker pelt between. Vying with those raw sensations was Steve's wicked mouth, which by now he'd reached her sternum and was ranging further afield while his hand wandering over her belly.

"Do you like your nipples played with?"

The words took a moment to translate, but she managed a nod and something that resembled, "yes," as per the rules. They had to have timed it. His mouth hot and gentle on her sensitive nipple even as Peggy found her wet and anxious for her touch. It was a relief to shout, to chase the electric need, hips rocking, fingers punishing in Steve's hair as he experimented with different pressures until she was really yanking at him. The rush of orgasm was a relief, rubbing off the sharp edges of weeks of curiosity and a day of anxious anticipation.

"You don't," she paused to take a deeper breath and gentled her grip on Steve's hair. "You don't have to stop. That feels really nice."

Humming affirmatively, he stayed with his licking and suckling as Angie settled into afterglow, hissing as Peggy retrieved her hand in order to settle her bad arm over the back of his neck. That let her lean in close enough to press a long, wet kiss to Angie's lips.

"Glad that worked for you, darling."

"A-plus, y'know, for a quickie."

"Sassy."

"Hell yes. Someday, I really need to get you harnessed up so you can fuck me face to face, hot stuff."

Cracking up, Peggy gave her another quick kiss before carefully adjusting to slither downward where Steve had let up on his attentions with a wry look. 

"I'm certain that can be arranged."

Angie patted Steve's cheek and gave him her best mischievous grin. "I haven't ruled you out, handsome, it's just, we girls can buy them in the sizes that we know will work."

Peggy was barely able to hold herself up from laughing as Steve looked mildly startled before saying dryly, "I suppose there's some stupid little part of me that's offended by that." He looked thoughtful for a moment and then shrugged. "No, not really. It's your body."

"Are you real?"

The battle was lost, and completely undone with amusement, Peggy tottered and collapsed atop her lovers, tucking her face into the space between their bodies. Adoringly, Steve stroked her messy hair before replying. "My mother decided that the best way to improve the world was to make sure I grew up into a good man. Sure, it was never easy and I caught and still catch crap from those of my gender that didn't get better lessons, but I'm pretty sure it's the only reason I caught this one."

Peggy lolled her head back onto Angie's belly to beam at him, panting a bit from her laughing jag. Watching them kiss with practiced tenderness was almost as much fun as participating and Angie was a very willing audience. They murmured quietly together, words secondary to the loving tones, and there was sass and adoration mixed with chuckles. With practiced hands, Steve cradled Peggy's elbows when she squirmed around, helping her to straddle his hips, making a low, pained noise.

"Careful, babe, or you'll be buyin' a harness for me too."

Angie huffed a small laugh where she lay quietly at the edge of his long reach, watching with big, interested eyes. It was impossible to drag her attention away, had she even wanted to. They were gorgeous and so adoring together.

"Well we wouldn't that broken too, now would we?"

For a long moment, there was something supplicating, not sexy in the way she buried her dark head in the crook of his shoulder, a shudder that ran up her bowed spine. He changed his grip so that both big hands could run over her back, soothing down that ripple of stress.

"Nothing we couldn't work around."

And with Peggy's small nod, the moment passed, both of them sitting up, her straddling body pressed to Steve's raised knees, right arm loosely cradled between them while they kissed and touched. Angie was humbled by the show of partnership, of strength and weakness that flowed back and forth between them so obviously.

With a bit of giggling effort they had Steve prepped in a condom and settled into a slow, intense fuck that left Angie hypnotized. They were good at this, she realized dazedly, not shocked at all. The ease of their connection that showed in the day to day was all more obvious in the way their bodies moved fluidly, their sounds guttural. Steve broke first, lungs going like great, base bellows, every muscle standing out like a sculpture beneath his damp skin, hands hard into the lush curves of Peggy's hips as they rocked into his. Ducking his head, he sank his teeth into her left collarbone and that was enough to connect their pleasures like a hot wire touching hot wire. Head back, Peggy made an inarticulate noise that shook her whole body, held there in a curl of pleasure for a long moment before lassitude softened her to lean forward and rest her cheek on the back of Steve's head.

Angie didn't even realized she'd made that soft, strangled sound until they shifted to pin her with hot, hooded eyes.

When they reached for her, she went with absolute willingness, desperately wanting even a little piece of what she had borne witness to.

**Author's Note:**

> Angie (21) and Luke (15), full sibs. Mikey is a half-brother, and turning (7)


End file.
